5,968 research outputs found
From Diffusion to Anomalous Diffusion: A Century after Einstein's Brownian Motion
Einstein's explanation of Brownian motion provided one of the cornerstones
which underlie the modern approaches to stochastic processes. His approach is
based on a random walk picture and is valid for Markovian processes lacking
long-term memory. The coarse-grained behavior of such processes is described by
the diffusion equation. However, many natural processes do not possess the
Markovian property and exhibit to anomalous diffusion. We consider here the
case of subdiffusive processes, which are semi-Markovian and correspond to
continuous-time random walks in which the waiting time for a step is given by a
probability distribution with a diverging mean value. Such a process can be
considered as a process subordinated to normal diffusion under operational time
which depends on this pathological waiting-time distribution. We derive two
different but equivalent forms of kinetic equations, which reduce to know
fractional diffusion or Fokker-Planck equations for waiting-time distributions
following a power-law. For waiting time distributions which are not pure power
laws one or the other form of the kinetic equation is advantageous, depending
on whether the process slows down or accelerates in the course of time
The Unequal Twins - Probability Distributions Aren't Everything
It is the common lore to assume that knowing the equation for the probability
distribution function (PDF) of a stochastic model as a function of time tells
the whole picture defining all other characteristics of the model. We show that
this is not the case by comparing two exactly solvable models of anomalous
diffusion due to geometric constraints: The comb model and the random walk on a
random walk (RWRW). We show that though the two models have exactly the same
PDFs, they differ in other respects, like their first passage time (FPT)
distributions, their autocorrelation functions and their aging properties
Fluctuations, Higher Order Anharmonicities, and Landau Expansion for Barium Titanate
Correct phenomenological description of ferroelectric phase transitions in
barium titanate requires accounting for eighth-order terms in the free energy
expansion, in addition to the conventional sixth-order contributions. Another
unusual feature of BaTiO_3 crystal is that the coefficients B_1 and B_2 of the
terms P_x^4 and P_x^2*P_y^2 in the Landau expansion depend on the temperature.
It is shown that the temperature dependence of B_1 and B_2 may be caused by
thermal fluctuations of the polarization, provided the fourth-order
anharmonicity is anomalously small, i. e. the nonlinearity of P^4 type and
higher-order ones play comparable roles. Non-singular (non-critical)
fluctuation contributions to B_1 and B_2 are calculated in the first
approximation in sixth-order and eighth-order anharmonic constants. Both
contributions increase with the temperature, which is in agreement with
available experimental data. Moreover, the theory makes it possible to
estimate, without any additional assumptions, the ratio of fluctuation
(temperature dependent) contributions to coefficients B_1 and B_2. Theoretical
value of B_1/B_2 appears to be close to that given by experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur
Irreversible and reversible modes of operation of deterministic ratchets
We discuss a problem of optimization of the energetic efficiency of a simple
rocked ratchet. We concentrate on a low-temperature case in which the
particle's motion in a ratchet potential is deterministic. We show that the
energetic efficiency of a ratchet working adiabatically is bounded from above
by a value depending on the form of ratchet potential. The ratchets with
strongly asymmetric potentials can achieve ideal efficiency of unity without
approaching reversibility. On the other hand we show that for any form of the
ratchet potential a set of time-protocols of the outer force exist under which
the operation is reversible and the ideal value of efficiency is also achieved.
The mode of operation of the ratchet is still quasistatic but not adiabatic.
The high values of efficiency can be preserved even under elevated
temperatures
Understanding Anomalous Transport in Intermittent Maps: From Continuous Time Random Walks to Fractals
We show that the generalized diffusion coefficient of a subdiffusive
intermittent map is a fractal function of control parameters. A modified
continuous time random walk theory yields its coarse functional form and
correctly describes a dynamical phase transition from normal to anomalous
diffusion marked by strong suppression of diffusion. Similarly, the probability
density of moving particles is governed by a time-fractional diffusion equation
on coarse scales while exhibiting a specific fine structure. Approximations
beyond stochastic theory are derived from a generalized Taylor-Green-Kubo
formula.Comment: 4 pages, 3 eps figure
- …