title: Run-and-tumble dynamics in a crowded environment: persistent exclusion process for swimmers.
abstract: The effect of crowding on the run-and-tumble dynamics of swimmers such as bacteria is studied using a discrete lattice model of mutually excluding particles that move with constant velocity along a direction that is randomized at a rate α. In stationary state, the system is found to break into dense clusters in which particles are trapped or stopped from moving. The characteristic size of these clusters predominantly scales as α(-0.5) in both one and two dimensions. For a range of densities, due to cooperative effects, the stopping time scales as T(1d)(0.85) and as T(2d)(0.8), where T(d) is the diffusive time associated with the motion of cluster boundaries. Our findings might be helpful in understanding the early stages of biofilm formation.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Chile, Avenida Blanco Encalada 2008, Santiago, Chile and Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3NP, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Soto
authors.affiliation: Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3NP, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Ramin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Golestanian
mesh_terms: D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D018441:Biofilms / Q000254:growth & development*; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000502:physiology*; D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003441:Crowding; D008954:Models, Biological; D008956:Models, Chemical; D009038:Motion; D013314:Stress, Mechanical
chemical_list: D003102:Colloids