Analytical treatment of biased diffusion in tubes with periodic dead ends

Abstract

Effective mobility and diffusion coefficient of a particle in a tube with identical periodic dead ends characterize the motion on large time scale, when the particle displacement significantly exceeds the tube period. We derive formulas that show how these transport coefficients depend on the driving force and the geometric parameters of the system. Numerical tests show that values of the transport coefficients obtained from Brownian dynamics simulations are in excellent agreement with our theoretical predictions. © 2011 U.S. Government.