Elementary simulation of tethered Brownian motion
Biomolecules
2009-11-13 v1 Statistical Mechanics
Biological Physics
Quantitative Methods
Abstract
We describe a simple numerical simulation, suitable for an undergraduate project (or graduate problem set), of the Brownian motion of a particle in a Hooke-law potential well. Understanding this physical situation is a practical necessity in many experimental contexts, for instance in single molecule biophysics; and its simulation helps the student to appreciate the dynamical character of thermal equilibrium. We show that the simulation succeeds in capturing behavior seen in experimental data on tethered particle motion.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.q-bio/0610007,
title = {Elementary simulation of tethered Brownian motion},
author = {John F. Beausang and Chiara Zurla and Luke Sullivan and Laura Finzi and Philip C. Nelson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:q-bio/0610007},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Submitted to American Journal of Physics