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Role of Fluctuations in Membrane Models: Thermal versus Non-Thermal

Dr Amit K Chattopadhyay
Non-linearity and Complexity Research Group, Aston University

Date: 8 Nov 2011 (Tuesday)
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Venue: MB565
Abstract
We study the comparative importance of thermal to nonthermal fluctuations for membrane-based models in the linear regime. Our results, both in 1 + 1 and 2 + 1 dimensions, suggest that nonthermal fluctuations dominate
thermal ones only when the relaxation time τ is large. For moderate to small values of τ , the dynamics is defined by a competition between these two forces. The results are expected to act as a quantitative benchmark for biological modeling in systems involving cytoskeletal and other nonthermal fluctuations.