title: Stepping molecular motor amid Lévy white noise.
abstract: We consider a model of a stepping molecular motor consisting of two connected heads. Directional motion of the stepper takes place along a one-dimensional track. Each head is subject to a periodic potential without spatial reflection symmetry. When the potential for one head is switched on, it is switched off for the other head. Additionally, the system is subject to the influence of symmetric, white Lévy noise that mimics the action of external random forcing. The stepper exhibits motion with a preferred direction which is examined by analyzing the median of the displacement of a midpoint between the positions of the two heads. We study the modified dynamics of the stepper by numerical simulations. We find flux reversals as noise parameters are changed. Speed and direction appear to very sensitively depend on characteristics of the noise.
authors.affiliation: M. Smoluchowski Institute of Physics Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland and Unit of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Bartosz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lisowski
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica e Chimica, Group of Interdisciplinary Theoretical Physics, Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 18, Università di Palermo and CNISM, Unità di Palermo, Palermo I-90128, Italy and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Catania, Via S. Sofia 64, I-90123 Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Valenti
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica e Chimica, Group of Interdisciplinary Theoretical Physics, Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 18, Università di Palermo and CNISM, Unità di Palermo, Palermo I-90128, Italy and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Catania, Via S. Sofia 64, I-90123 Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: Bernardo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Spagnolo
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858, USA.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bier
authors.affiliation: Mark Kac Center for Complex Systems Research and Malopolska Center of Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gudowska-Nowak
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D008958:Models, Molecular; D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D009038:Motion
chemical_list: D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins