Stepping molecular motor amid Lévy white noise

2015

We consider a model of a stepping molecular motor consisting of two connected heads. Directional motion of the stepper takes place along a one-dimensional track. Each head is subject to a periodic potential without spatial reflection symmetry. When the potential for one head is switched on, it is switched off for the other head. Additionally, the system is subject to the influence of symmetric, white Lévy noise that mimics the action of external random forcing. The stepper exhibits motion with a preferred direction which is examined by analyzing the median of the displacement of a midpoint between the positions of the two heads. We study the modified dynamics of the stepper by numerical sim…