Emergence of Sinai Physics in the stochastic motion of passive and active particles
Abstract
A particle that is immersed in a uniform temperature bath performs Brownian diffusion, as discussed by Einstein. But Sinai has realized that in a "random environment" the diffusion is suppressed. Follow-up works have pointed out that in the presence of bias $f$ there are delocalization and sliding transitions, with threshold value $f_c$ that depends on the disorder strength. We discuss in a critical way the emergence of Sinai physics for both passive and active Brownian particles. Tight-binding and Fokker-Planck versions of the model are addressed on equal footing. We assume that the transition rates between sites are enhanced either due to a driving mechanism or due to self-propulsion mechanism that are induced by an irradiation source. Consequently, counter intuitively, the dynamics becomes sub-diffusive and the relaxation modes become over-damped. For a finite system, spontaneous delocalization may arise, due to residual bias that is induced by the irradiation.
- Publication:
-
arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- June 2021
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2106.08707
- Bibcode:
- 2021arXiv210608707S
- Keywords:
-
- Condensed Matter - Statistical Mechanics;
- Condensed Matter - Disordered Systems and Neural Networks;
- Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter
- E-Print:
- 11 pages, 4 figures