Strong Mobility in Weakly Disordered Systems

Condensed Matter lunchtime seminar

Strong Mobility in Weakly Disordered Systems

  • Event time: 1:00pm
  • Event date: 30th July 2009
  • Speaker: Eli Ben-Naim (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
  • Location: Room 2511,

Event details

The transport of interacting particles in disordered media will be discussed. The one-dimensional system includes (i) disorder: the hopping rate governing the movement of a particle between two neighboring lattice sites is inhomogeneous, and (ii) hard core interaction: the maximum occupancy at each site is one particle. Over a substantial regime, the root-mean-square displacement of a particle is faster than diffusive whereas without disorder, the displacement is slower than diffusive. These results are established using scaling arguments and numerical simulations. Remarkably, disorder speeds up the transport of interacting particles despite the fact that disorder slows down non-interacting particles. Therefore, disorder and particle interactions compete in a non-trivial way. Relevance to transport in condensed matter systems, colloidal, biological, and microfluidic channels will be also discussed.

Strong Mobility in Weakly Disordered Systems E. Ben-Naim and P.L. Krapivsky Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 190602 (2009); arxiv:0902.2762

About Condensed Matter lunchtime seminars

This is a weekly series of informal talks given primarily by members of the institute of condensed matter and complex systems, but is also open to members of other groups and external visitors. The aim of the series is to promote discussion and learning of various topics at a level suitable to the broad background of the group. Everyone is welcome to attend..

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