Localized Fluctuations of Microscopic Active Particles in Living Cells

Microscopic active particles move through a combination of thermal Brownian motion and self propulsion. Brownian motion is of interest to researchers of drug delivery, algae growth, and nanotechnology. Experiments to understand active Brownian motion can have trouble knowing how to analyze the data they have, leading to the necessity of simulation.

We assume that the motion will follow the Langevin equation model, which uses the forces we assume are present. We simulated the motion of a 2D active particle in water, both with and without the quadratic potential confinement that mimics the elastic components of the biological environment. The simulation without the quadratic potential allows us to measure the pure active motion. With the quadratic potential we can see the behavior of the active matter when under confinement, the way they are in biological environments.

Using our simulation we can verify our assumption and then use that to begin analyzing our data. Our next steps are to do an experiment for a particle in a viscoelastic medium and then create a simulation to match our experimental data, based on the simulation we made for water.