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