Dynamics of Passive and Self-propelled Tracer Particles in Ordered Crowded Environments
摘要
Crowded cellular environment plays a vital role in governing the dynamics of tracer particles. In this study, we use extensive Langevin dynamics simulations to explore the anomalous diffusion behaviour of passive and self-propelled particles in ordered crowded environments. The crowded environment is created with an array of immobile atoms arranged periodically in space, designed to mimic the crowded conditions of cellular environments. Our findings reveal that, as the packing fraction and binding strength increase, the motion of passive probes becomes more restricted, with dynamics becoming increasingly non-Gaussian and sub-diffusive. From the analysis of mean squared displacement and diffusion constant, we uncover a fascinating non-monotonic behaviour as we increase the packing fraction by changing the crowder size for both passive and self-propelled particles. Finally, we examine the intermittent anomalous diffusion by analysing the time-averaged mean squared displacement. This study has broad implications for understanding probe dynamics in complex biological environments.