Past exam of the soft matter and biological physics course of the University of Cambridge / 2014 / Paper 1 / 1 / Solution

velocity $U$, length $\ell$ and diffusivity $D$ have dimensions $L/T$, $L$, and $L^2/T$. Their dimensionless Péclet number isdiffusion dominates for $\mathrm{Pe}\ll 1$, advection for $\mathrm{Pe}\gg 1$. At fixed $U,D$, the crossover length is $D/U$; neglecting advection requires $\ell \ll D/U$.

TODO: user-deferred organism-specific swimming-speed and detection-scale estimates. No biological numerical substitution is made.

For the generic equilibrium transport derivation, let an external potential $V(x)$ give force $F=-V^{\prime }$ and drift $u=F/\zeta$. Boltzmann equilibrium has $c\propto e^{-V/(k_{B}T)}$, hence $c^{\prime }=Fc/(k_{B}T)$. Substituting in the zero-current condition givesThe Stokes–Einstein relation in the final equality is for an isolated no-slip sphere in a Newtonian liquid at low Reynolds number. Zero flux alone is insufficient: the equilibrium distribution and mechanical mobility law are also needed.

TODO: user-deferred organism-specific absorbing-surface calculation and its biological flux interpretation.

TODO: user-deferred receptor-number, receptor-density and receptor-competition calculations. These continuations have not been solved.