2021/03/31 by Sugimoto, Satoshi, Ken Umeno, Umeno, Ken
Engineering · Mathematics · Medicine · #COVID-19 epidemiological studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Infection Control and Ventilation #Particle Dynamics in Fluid Flows #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2103.16821
openalex publication_date 2021/03/31 · openalex created_date 2021/04/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study a stochastic behavior of aerosols by the non-equilibrium statistical mechanics approach using the analytical approach of the Langevin equation. We firstly show that superdiffusion can possibly occur right after the emission, which may be attributed to the physical mechanism of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also provide clear evidence of the least required distance to prevent infections occurred by aerosols. In particular, the required distance to prevent aerosol infections is derived to be about 42 m when we assume Cauchy distribution as an initial velocity distribution. This fact implies that due to superdiffusion the aerosol infection can occur even far away from a long distance as compared to the previous considerations.