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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 29: Poster: Active Fluids
CPP 29.1: Poster
Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 17:30–19:00, Poster C
Chemotactic predator-prey dynamics — •Ankush Sengupta, Tobias Kruppa, and Hartmut Lowen — Institut für Theoretische Physik II: Weiche Materie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Universitätsstrasse 1, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
A discrete chemotactic predator-prey model is proposed in which the prey secrets a diffusing chemical which is sensed by the predator and vice versa. Three different dynamical states are identified which correspond to catching, escaping and steady hunting, and various associated scaling laws are extracted. For the escape process, the predator-prey distance is diffusive for short times but exhibits a transient subdiffusive behaviour which scales as a power law t1/3 with time t and ultimately crosses over to diffusion again. The trapping dynamics also shows a scaling of the predator-prey distance with time as |t−tcap|1/3, close to the capturing time tcap. We explain these power laws theoretically from the analytic forms of the secreted chemical profiles. This allows us to classify the motility and dynamics of various bacteria and phagocytes.