Inferring Active Noise Characteristics from the Paired Observations of Anomalous Diffusion

Abstract

Anomalous diffusion has been most often argued in terms of a position fluctuation of a tracer. We here propose the other fluctuating observable, i.e., momentum transfer defined as the time integral of applied force to hold a tracer’s position. Being a conjugated variable, the momentum transfer is thought of as generating the anomalous diffusion paired with the position’s one. By putting together the paired anomalous diffusions, we aim to extract useful information in complex systems, which can be applied to experiments like tagged monomer observations in chromatin. The polymer being in the equilibrium, the mean square displacement (or variance) of position displacement or momentum transfer exhibits the sub- or superdiffusion, respectively, in which the sum of the anomalous diffusion indices is conserved quite generally, but the nonequilibrium media that generate the active noise may manifest the derivations from the equilibrium relation. We discuss the deviations that reflect the characteristics of the active noise.

Keywords

• polymer
• anomalous diffusion
• nonequilibrium noise