FIG. 3.
The ”tip-side” mechanism: numerical solution of Eq (1) and mean-field estimates: (a) Number of all tip-side collisions, Ncoll (solid line), and fraction of collisions, Pα< αc,, occurred at a sufficiently small angle, α < αc = 0.2 (histogram), integrated over first 30 s in one Monte Carlo realization and shown as functions of distance from the aster center. (b) Mean-field solution (4) in the absence of filament absorption (solid line) and results of spatial simulations with absorption taken into account (dots with error bars); αcδ/h = 0.03, p = 5; error bars correspond standard deviation based on 50 to 120 realizations. The inset: average number of filaments per bundle, N b, vs. τn/τp.