2,184 research outputs found
Generalized Fokker-Planck equation, Brownian motion, and ergodicity
Microscopic theory of Brownian motion of a particle of mass in a bath of
molecules of mass is considered beyond lowest order in the mass ratio
. The corresponding Langevin equation contains nonlinear corrections to
the dissipative force, and the generalized Fokker-Planck equation involves
derivatives of order higher than two. These equations are derived from first
principles with coefficients expressed in terms of correlation functions of
microscopic force on the particle. The coefficients are evaluated explicitly
for a generalized Rayleigh model with a finite time of molecule-particle
collisions. In the limit of a low-density bath, we recover the results obtained
previously for a model with instantaneous binary collisions. In general case,
the equations contain additional corrections, quadratic in bath density,
originating from a finite collision time. These corrections survive to order
and are found to make the stationary distribution non-Maxwellian.
Some relevant numerical simulations are also presented
Enhanced quantum tunnelling induced by disorder
We reconsider the problem of the enhancement of tunnelling of a quantum
particle induced by disorder of a one-dimensional tunnel barrier of length ,
using two different approximate analytic solutions of the invariant imbedding
equations of wave propagation for weak disorder. The two solutions are
complementary for the detailed understanding of important aspects of numerical
results on disorder-enhanced tunnelling obtained recently by Kim et al. (Phys.
rev. B{\bf 77}, 024203 (2008)). In particular, we derive analytically the
scaled wavenumber -threshold where disorder-enhanced tunnelling of an
incident electron first occurs, as well as the rate of variation of the
transmittance in the limit of vanishing disorder. Both quantities are in good
agreement with the numerical results of Kim et al. Our non-perturbative
solution of the invariant imbedding equations allows us to show that the
disorder enhances both the mean conductance and the mean resistance of the
barrier.Comment: 10 page
Steady-state fluctuations of a genetic feedback loop:an exact solution
Genetic feedback loops in cells break detailed balance and involve
bimolecular reactions; hence exact solutions revealing the nature of the
stochastic fluctuations in these loops are lacking. We here consider the master
equation for a gene regulatory feedback loop: a gene produces protein which
then binds to the promoter of the same gene and regulates its expression. The
protein degrades in its free and bound forms. This network breaks detailed
balance and involves a single bimolecular reaction step. We provide an exact
solution of the steady-state master equation for arbitrary values of the
parameters, and present simplified solutions for a number of special cases. The
full parametric dependence of the analytical non-equilibrium steady-state
probability distribution is verified by direct numerical solution of the master
equations. For the case where the degradation rate of bound and free protein is
the same, our solution is at variance with a previous claim of an exact
solution (Hornos et al, Phys. Rev. E {\bf 72}, 051907 (2005) and subsequent
studies). We show explicitly that this is due to an unphysical formulation of
the underlying master equation in those studies.Comment: 31 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in the Journal of
Chemical Physics (2012
Sub-Poissonian atom number fluctuations by three-body loss in mesoscopic ensembles
We show that three-body loss of trapped atoms leads to sub-Poissonian atom
number fluctuations. We prepare hundreds of dense ultracold ensembles in an
array of magnetic microtraps which undergo rapid three-body decay. The
shot-to-shot fluctuations of the number of atoms per trap are sub-Poissonian,
for ensembles comprising 50--300 atoms. The measured relative variance or Fano
factor agrees very well with the prediction by an analytic
theory () and numerical calculations. These results will facilitate
studies of quantum information science with mesoscopic ensembles.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Fluctuation spectrum of quasispherical membranes with force-dipole activity
The fluctuation spectrum of a quasi-spherical vesicle with active membrane
proteins is calculated. The activity of the proteins is modeled as the proteins
pushing on their surroundings giving rise to non-local force distributions.
Both the contributions from the thermal fluctuations of the active protein
densities and the temporal noise in the individual active force distributions
of the proteins are taken into account. The noise in the individual force
distributions is found to become significant at short wavelengths.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, minor changes and addition
A new view of the spin echo diffusive diffraction on porous structures
Analysis with the characteristic functional of stochastic motion is used for
the gradient spin echo measurement of restricted motion to clarify details of
the diffraction-like effect in a porous structure. It gives the diffusive
diffraction as an interference of spin phase shifts due to the back-flow of
spins bouncing at the boundaries, when mean displacement of scattered spins is
equal to the spin phase grating prepared by applied magnetic field gradients.
The diffraction patterns convey information about morphology of the surrounding
media at times long enough that opposite boundaries are restricting
displacements. The method explains the dependence of diffraction on the time
and width of gradient pulses, as observed at the experiments and the
simulations. It also enlightens the analysis of transport properties by the
spin echo, particularly in systems, where the motion is restricted by structure
or configuration
Poisson-noise induced escape from a metastable state
We provide a complete solution of the problems of the probability
distribution and the escape rate in Poisson-noise driven systems. It includes
both the exponents and the prefactors. The analysis refers to an overdamped
particle in a potential well. The results apply for an arbitrary average rate
of noise pulses, from slow pulse rates, where the noise acts on the system as
strongly non-Gaussian, to high pulse rates, where the noise acts as effectively
Gaussian
Chaotic properties of systems with Markov dynamics
We present a general approach for computing the dynamic partition function of
a continuous-time Markov process. The Ruelle topological pressure is identified
with the large deviation function of a physical observable. We construct for
the first time a corresponding finite Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy for these
processes. Then, as an example, the latter is computed for a symmetric
exclusion process. We further present the first exact calculation of the
topological pressure for an N-body stochastic interacting system, namely an
infinite-range Ising model endowed with spin-flip dynamics. Expressions for the
Kolmogorov-Sinai and the topological entropies follow.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in the Physical Review Letter
Theory of Second and Higher Order Stochastic Processes
This paper presents a general approach to linear stochastic processes driven
by various random noises. Mathematically, such processes are described by
linear stochastic differential equations of arbitrary order (the simplest
non-trivial example is , where is not a Gaussian white
noise). The stochastic process is discretized into time-steps, all possible
realizations are summed up and the continuum limit is taken. This procedure
often yields closed form formulas for the joint probability distributions.
Completely worked out examples include all Gaussian random forces and a large
class of Markovian (non-Gaussian) forces. This approach is also useful for
deriving Fokker-Planck equations for the probability distribution functions.
This is worked out for Gaussian noises and for the Markovian dichotomous noise.Comment: 35 pages, PlainTex, accepted for publication in Phys Rev. E
Relationship between long time scales and the static free-energy in the Hopfield model
The Glauber dynamics of the Hopfield model at low storage level is
considered. We analytically derive the spectrum of relaxation times for large
system sizes. The longest time scales are gathered in families, each family
being in one to one correspondence with a stationary (not necessarily stable)
point of the static mean-field free-energy. Inside a family, the time scales
are given by the reciprocals (of the absolute values) of the eigenvalues of the
free-energy Hessian matrix.Comment: 5 pages RevTex file, accepted for publication in J.Phys.
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