Weak Disorder Strongly Improves the Selective Enhancement of Diffusion in a Tilted Periodic Potential

2008/10/10 by Peter Reimann, Ralf Eichhorn · 69 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Anomalous diffusion #Brownian motion #Condensed matter physics #Diffusion #Innovation diffusion #Mathematics #Periodic potential #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #Statistical physics #Thermal fluctuations #Tilt (camera) #cond-mat.stat-mech #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.101.180601

published in Physical Review Letters 101(18), 180601 (American Physical Society) · Phys. Rev. Lett., in press

arxiv created 2008/10/10 · openalex publication_date 2008/10/29 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

The diffusion of an overdamped Brownian particle in a tilted periodic potential is known to exhibit a pronounced enhancement over the free thermal diffusion within a small interval of tilt values. Here we show that weak disorder in the form of small, time-independent deviations from a strictly spatially periodic potential may further boost this diffusion peak by orders of magnitude. Our general theoretical predictions are in excellent agreement with experimental observations.

Citations

• Characterizing potentials by a generalized Boltzmann factor
• Temperature and spatial diffusion of atoms cooled in a 3D lin ⊥lin bright optical lattice
• Microfluidics: Fluid physics at the nanoliter scale
• Diffusion and creep of a particle in a random potential
• Creep in one dimension and phenomenological theory of glass dynamics

Cited by

• Brownian motion and generalized Lifson-Jackson formula in quasi-periodic systems