Persistence of a Brownian particle in a time-dependent potential

Persistence in Brownian motion of an ellipsoidal particle in two dimensions

We investigate the persistence probability p(t) of the position of a Brownian particle with shape asymmetry in two dimensions. The persistence probability is defined as the probability that a stochastic variable has not changed its sign in the given time interval. We explicitly consider two cases-diffusion of a free particle and that of a harmonically trapped particle. The latter is particularly relevant in experiments that use trapping and tracking techniques to measure the displacements. We provide analytical expressions of p(t) for both the scenarios and show that in the absence of the shape asymmetry, the results reduce to the case of an isotropic particle. The analytical expressions of p(t) are further validated against numerical simulation of the underlying overdamped dynamics. We also illustrate that p(t) can be a measure to determine the shape asymmetry of a colloid and the translational and rotational diffusivities can be estimated from the measured persistence probability. The advantage of this method is that it does not require the tracking of the orientation of the particle.

Brownian motion of a circle swimmer in a harmonic trap

We study the dynamics of a Brownian circle swimmer with a time-dependent self-propulsion velocity in an external temporally varying harmonic potential. For several situations, the noise-free swimming paths, the noise-averaged mean trajectories, and the mean-square displacements are calculated analytically or by computer simulation. Based on our results, we discuss optimal swimming strategies in order to explore a maximum spatial range around the trap center. In particular, we find a resonance situation for the maximum escape distance as a function of the various frequencies in the system. Moreover, the influence of the Brownian noise is analyzed by comparing noise-free trajectories at zero temperature with the corresponding noise-averaged trajectories at finite temperature. The latter reveal various complex self-similar spiral or rosette-like patterns. Our predictions can be tested in experiments on artificial and biological microswimmers under dynamical external confinement.

Persistence of Brownian motion in a shear flow

The persistence of a Brownian particle in a shear flow is investigated. The persistence probability P(t), which is the probability that the particle does not return to its initial position up to time t, is known to obey a power law P(t)∝t(-θ). Since the displacement of a particle along the flow direction due to convection is much larger than that due to Brownian motion, we define an alternative displacement in which the convection effect is removed. We derive theoretically the two-time correlation function and the persistence exponent θ of this displacement. The exponent has different values at short and long times. The theoretical results are compared with experiment and a good agreement is found.