Special Session 84: Recent developments in understanding of nonlinear phenomena in fluid dynamics, biology, statistical mechanics and optics

Effective Thermal Equilibrium for Switching Polymer Model of Chromosome Dynamics

Anna Coletti
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
USA
Co-Author(s):    
Abstract:
How the genome organizes and interacts within the cell can be understood through a polymer-like model of chromosome dynamics that combines Brownian motion with a stochastic switching force. The switching force, which follows a continuous-time Markov chain process, keeps the general overdamped Langevin system out of strict equilibrium. However, an effective energy landscape through the framework of quasipotentials helps us to understand the stability and transitions in the system. We show how this quasipotential changes as a function of switching rate which explains the difference in cluster-lifetimes observed in the large scale simulations of the experimental chromosome system.