Daily Calendar - Physics Department, Princeton University

Events - Daily

<< March 11, 2013 >>

Monday, March 11
Henrik Flyvbjerg (Danish Technical University) "Optimal estimation of diffusion coefficients from noisy single-particle trajectories" Einstein argued in 1905 that the mean squared displacement of a microscopic particle suspended in a fluid at rest is proportional to time with the constant of proportionality giving the particle's diffusion coefficient. Since then, diffusion coefficients have been determined from particle trajectories by fitting a straight line to the observed mean squared displacement. This procedure is accurate,but not precise in any of its incarnations, yet dominates practise. We present a simpler, optimal, and unbiased estimator of diffusion coefficients of freely diffusing particles in homogeneous media. It takes time-lapse recorded single-particle trajectories as input, is vastly superior to estimates based on the mean squared displacement as function of time, and is superior to Maximum Likelihood estimation for short trajectories. We extend this estimator to taught fluctuating substrates in a manner that removes the false contribution from substrate motion to the measured diffusion coefficient. As a pertinent practical illustration of its power, this estimator reveals a two-state kinetics in the diffusion of hOGG1 protein on flow-stretched DNA, a fluctuating substrate. This kinetics is found in data that previously were analyzed with the mean squared displacement, which revealed only simple diffusion. Joseph Henry Room · 12:00 p.m.– 1:00 p.m.
High Energy Theory Seminar - IAS - Dieter Luest, Max-Planck-Institute for Physics, Munich - “Closed Strings and Non-Commutative/Non-Associative Ge In this talk I discuss that non-commutative and non-associative geometry emerges for closed stringsmoving in non-geometric backgrounds. The origin of closed string non-commutativity (non-associativity)is due to new closed string boundary conditions in the presence of non-geometric background fields. We will also discusssome aspects of closed string CFT in non-geometric target spaces. Bloomberg Lecture Hall · 2:30 p.m.– 4:00 p.m.

Monday, March 11

Henrik Flyvbjerg (Danish Technical University) "Optimal estimation of diffusion coefficients from noisy single-particle trajectories"
Einstein argued in 1905 that the mean squared displacement of a microscopic particle suspended in a fluid at rest is proportional to time with the constant of proportionality giving the particle's
diffusion coefficient. Since then, diffusion coefficients have been determined from particle trajectories by fitting a straight line to the observed mean squared displacement. This procedure is accurate,but not precise in any of its incarnations, yet dominates practise.

We present a simpler, optimal, and unbiased estimator of diffusion coefficients of freely diffusing particles in homogeneous media. It takes time-lapse recorded single-particle trajectories as input,
is vastly superior to estimates based on the mean squared displacement as function of time, and is superior to Maximum Likelihood estimation for short trajectories. We extend this estimator to taught fluctuating substrates in a manner that removes the false contribution from substrate motion to the measured diffusion coefficient.

As a pertinent practical illustration of its power, this estimator reveals a two-state kinetics in the diffusion of hOGG1 protein on flow-stretched
DNA, a fluctuating substrate. This kinetics is found in data that previously were analyzed with the mean squared displacement, which revealed only simple diffusion.

Joseph Henry Room · 12:00 p.m.– 1:00 p.m.

High Energy Theory Seminar - IAS - Dieter Luest, Max-Planck-Institute for Physics, Munich - “Closed Strings and Non-Commutative/Non-Associative Ge
In this talk I discuss that non-commutative and non-associative geometry emerges for closed stringsmoving in non-geometric backgrounds. The origin of closed string non-commutativity (non-associativity)is due to new closed string boundary conditions in the presence of non-geometric background fields. We will also discusssome aspects of closed string CFT in non-geometric target spaces.

Bloomberg Lecture Hall · 2:30 p.m.– 4:00 p.m.