Traffic flow of interacting self-driven particles: rails and trails, vehicles and vesicles

TL;DR

This paper reviews the modeling of various self-driven particles, such as vehicles, ants, and molecular motors, highlighting their common features and key differences in physical properties within non-equilibrium statistical mechanics.

Contribution

It identifies shared characteristics and fundamental differences in the physical behavior of different self-driven particle systems used in modeling traffic and biological transport.

Findings

Common features of self-driven particles in different systems

Differences in physical properties of these systems

Relevance to non-equilibrium statistical mechanics

Abstract

One common feature of a vehicle, an ant and a kinesin motor is that they all convert chemical energy, derived from fuel or food, into mechanical energy required for their forward movement; such objects have been modelled in recent years as {\it self-driven} ``particles''. Cytoskeletal filaments, e.g., microtubules, form a ``rail'' network for intra-cellular transport of vesicular cargo by molecular motors like, for example, kinesins. Similarly, ants move along trails while vehicles move along lanes. Therefore, the traffic of vehicles and organisms as well as that of molecular motors can be modelled as systems of interacting self-driven particles; these are of current interest in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. In this paper we point out the common features of these model systems and emphasize the crucial differences in their physical properties.