Past Event: Oden Institute Seminar

Non-Brownian diffusion: from disorder to physical insights

Ralf Metzler, Theoretical Physics Institute for Physics & Astronomy University of Potsdam

Abstract

More than a hundred years ago Einstein, Smoluchowski, and Langevin formulated the laws of diffusion, and Perrin presented his systematic experiments tracking single, microscopic diffusing particles. Following several technological revolutions such as superresolution microscopy, experimentalists now measure the passive and active motion of submicron tracers and single molecules in complex systems such as living biological cells at unprecedented precision. Quite typically the measured motion significantly deviates from the laws of normal Brownian motion. Instead, anomalous diffusion is observed, in the form of non-Gaussian, long-range correlated, non-ergodic, or ageing dynamics. Based on state-of-the-art data from single particle tracking experiments and in silico systems this talk will elucidate the precise features unveiled in the data and established new theoretical approaches needed to understand the physical mechanisms behind the measured dynamics.