Tracer Particles in Two-Dimensional Elastic Networks Diffuse Logarithmically Slow

Abstract

Several experiments on tagged molecules or particles in living systems suggest that they move anomalously slow - their mean squared displacement (MSD) increase slower than linearly with time. Leading models aimed at understanding these experiments predict that the MSD grows as a power law with a growth exponent that is smaller than unity. However, in some experiments the exponent is so small $(\sim 0.1-0.2)$ that they hint towards other mechanisms at play. In this paper, we theoretically demonstrate how in-plane collective modes excited by thermal fluctuations in a two dimensional membrane lead to logarithmic time dependence for the mean square displacement of a tracer particle.