Speaker
Alain Blaustein, Pennsylvania State University
Abstract
This talk focuses on chemotaxis, the phenomenon by which bacteria modify their movement in the presence of chemical species. Our aim is to illustrate how internal mechanisms enable these micro-organisms to interpret macroscopic variations of an external signal. To this end, we derive the empirical run-and-tumble equations from a kinetic model which incorporates the internal mechanisms. The crucial point is to identify the right microscopic reference frame, in which the limiting model arises explicitly. This approach allows for quantitative and strong convergence estimates.