Himani Sachdeva

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Motivated by the phenomenology of traffic inside the Golgi apparatus of cells,
we study a one-dimensional aggregation-fragmentation model in an open
system where the total mass is not conserved due to influx and outflux at the
boundaries. As influx is increased, the system undergoes a phase transition to
an unusual condensate phase in which the total mass shows giant fluctuations
as well as strong temporal intermittency, as in the turbulence phenomena.
These properties are established analytically in the absence of fragmentation
and numerically for non-zero fragmentation. We have also studied a multi-
species generalisation of this model which allows for interconversion between
different species: in a certain limit, the system exists in a phase characterised by
formation of localised, indefinitely growing aggregates of different species in
different regions of the system. The broad relevance of this sort of a model in
the context of Golgi structure and traffic will be briefly discussed.

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Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India
Seminarraum Theoretische Physik
Contact: not specified