{"paper":{"title":"Phototactic Decision-Making by Micro-Algae","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["physics.bio-ph","q-bio.CB"],"primary_cat":"cond-mat.soft","authors_text":"Adham Al-Kassem, Adriana I. Pesci, Nir S. Gov, Rapha\\\"el Jeanneret, Raymond E. Goldstein, Shantanu Raikwar","submitted_at":"2025-07-02T13:10:51Z","abstract_excerpt":"We study how simple eukaryotic organisms make decisions in response to competing stimuli in the context of phototaxis by the unicellular alga $Chlamydomonas~reinhardtii$. While negatively phototactic cells swim directly away from a collimated light beam, when presented with two beams of adjustable intersection angle and intensities, we find that cells swim in a direction given by an intensity-weighted average of the two light propagation vectors. This geometrical law is a fixed point of an adaptive model of phototaxis and minimizes the average light intensity falling on the anterior pole of th"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2507.01684","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2507.01684/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}