English

Activity induced first order transition for the current in a disordered medium

Statistical Mechanics 2017-10-04 v3

Abstract

It is well known that particles can get trapped by randomly placed obstacles when they are pushed too much. We present a model where the current in a disordered medium dies at a large external field, but is reborn when the activity is increased. By activity we mean the time-variation of the external driving at a constant time-averaged field. A different interpretation of the resurgence of the current is that the particles are capable of taking an infinite sequence of potential barriers via a mechanism similar to stochastic resonance. We add a discussion regarding the role of "shaking" in processes of relaxation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1705.02820,
  title  = {Activity induced first order transition for the current in a disordered medium},
  author = {T. Demaerel and C. Maes},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1705.02820},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

13 pages, 12 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T19:40:06.587Z