2005/04/03 by Binhua Lin, B. Lin, M. Meron +7 · 1 citation
Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Material Dynamics and Properties #Stochastic processes and statistical mechanics #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #cond-mat.soft #physics.chem-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.94.216001
published as Phys Rev Lett 94, 216001 (2005) · 4 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2005/04/03 · openalex publication_date 2005/06/02 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report an experimental study of diffusion in a quasi-one-dimensional (q1D) colloid suspension which behaves like a Tonks gas. The mean squared displacement as a function of time is described well with an ansatz encompassing a time regime that is both shorter and longer than the mean time between collisions. The ansatz asserts that the inverse mean squared displacement is the sum of the inverse mean squared displacement for short time normal diffusion (random walk) and the inverse mean squared displacement for asymptotic single-file diffusion (SFD). The dependence of the 1D mobility in the SFD on the concentration of the colloids agrees quantitatively with that derived for a hard rod model, which confirms for the first time the validity of the hard rod SFD theory. We also show that a recent SFD theory by Kollmann leads to the hard rod SFD theory for a Tonks gas.