Far-from-equilibrium transport with constrained resources

TL;DR

This paper investigates a constrained-resource version of the TASEP model, revealing how limited particle supply affects transport properties, with implications for biological systems where resource availability limits molecular motor activity.

Contribution

It introduces a TASEP model with a global particle constraint and provides analytical and simulation results on its transport characteristics.

Findings

Particle density depends on boundary rates and total particle number

Current is limited by resource constraints in the system

Model applicable to biological transport with limited molecular motors

Abstract

The totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP) is a well studied example of far-from-equilibrium dynamics. Here, we consider a TASEP with open boundaries but impose a global constraint on the total number of particles. In other words, the boundary reservoirs and the system must share a finite supply of particles. Using simulations and analytic arguments, we obtain the average particle density and current of the system, as a function of the boundary rates and the total number of particles. Our findings are relevant to biological transport problems if the availability of molecular motors becomes a rate-limiting factor.