Dresden 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 32: Statistical Physics of Biological Systems III (joint session BP/DY)

BP 32.3: Vortrag

Donnerstag, 12. März 2026, 15:30–15:45, BAR/SCHÖ

Anomalous diffusion and directed coalescence of condensates out of equilibrium — •Andriy Goychuk — Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany — Lower Saxony Center for Artificial Intelligence and Causal Methods in Medicine, Hannover, Germany

Phase separation is ubiquitous in engineered and in biological systems. For example, biomolecular condensates contribute to the organization of the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm in cells. Here, I will first extend our understanding of textbook phase separation models by showing how condensates consisting of nonpolar molecules can effectively polarize and undergo coarsening by directed coalescence when subjected to a global drift, for example due to electrostatic potential gradients, chemical concentration gradients, or gravitation. Next, to better model the intracellular solution, I will incorporate viscoelastic stress propagation and nonequilibrium fluctuations. In this context, the Brownian motion of condensates has been barely explored despite being a cornerstone of statistical and colloidal Physics. If the active stresses, for example generated by molecular motors, have a different correlation time than the viscoelastic relaxation time of the solution, then the fluctuation-dissipation theorem is broken and the mixture is driven out of equilibrium. In this case, the size-dependence of the center-of-mass diffusion coefficient of the condensates can be either suppressed or enhanced, and the droplet can show superdiffusive motion. Together, these findings improve our understanding of the dynamics of domains in viscoelastic media and conserved order parameters in general.

Keywords: Phase Separation; Brownian Motion; Nonequilibrium Fluctuations; Viscoelastic Fluids