title: Random walk of passive tracers among randomly moving obstacles.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study is mainly motivated by the need of understanding how the diffusion behavior of a biomolecule (or even of a larger object) is affected by other moving macromolecules, organelles, and so on, inside a living cell, whence the possibility of understanding whether or not a randomly walking biomolecule is also subject to a long-range force field driving it to its target.
  
  
  METHODS
  By means of the Continuous Time Random Walk (CTRW) technique the topic of random walk in random environment is here considered in the case of a passively diffusing particle among randomly moving and interacting obstacles.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The relevant physical quantity which is worked out is the diffusion coefficient of the passive tracer which is computed as a function of the average inter-obstacles distance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results reported here suggest that if a biomolecule, let us call it a test molecule, moves towards its target in the presence of other independently interacting molecules, its motion can be considerably slowed down.
authors.affiliation: Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France.|CNRS Centre de Physique Théorique UMR7332, Marseille, 13288, France.
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gori
authors.affiliation: Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France.|CNRS Centre de Physique Théorique UMR7332, Marseille, 13288, France.
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Donato
authors.affiliation: Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France.|CNRS Centre de Physique Théorique UMR7332, Marseille, 13288, France.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Floriani
authors.affiliation: CNRS Centre de Physique Théorique UMR7332, Marseille, 13288, France.|Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, Aix Marseille Université UM2, Inserm, U1104, CNRS UMR7280, Marseille, 13288, France.
authors.forename: Ilaria
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nardecchia
authors.affiliation: Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France. marco.pettini@gmail.com.|CNRS Centre de Physique Théorique UMR7332, Marseille, 13288, France. marco.pettini@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pettini
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D004058:Diffusion; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D008954:Models, Biological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009038:Motion; D011336:Probability; D013269:Stochastic Processes
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances
keywords: Diffusion of biomolecules; Probability theory; Stochastic models in biological physics