English

Driven Lorentz model in discrete time

Statistical Mechanics 2024-09-05 v1

Abstract

We consider a tracer particle performing a random walk on a two-dimensional lattice in the presence of immobile hard obstacles. Starting from equilibrium, a constant force pulling on the particle is switched on, driving the system to a new stationary state. Our study calculates displacement moments in discrete time (number of steps NN) for an arbitrarily strong constant driving force, exact to first order in obstacle density. We find that for fixed driving force FF, the approach to the terminal discrete velocity scales as N1exp(NF2/16)\sim N^{-1} \exp(- N F^2 / 16) for small FF, differing significantly from the N1\sim N^{-1} prediction of linear response. Besides a non-analytic dependence on the force and breakdown of Einstein's linear response, our results show that fluctuations in the directions of the force are enhanced in the presence of obstacles. Notably, the variance grows as N3\sim N^3 (superdiffusion) for FF \to \infty at intermediate steps, reverting to normal diffusion (N\sim N) at larger steps, a behavior previously observed in continuous time but demonstrated here in discrete steps for the first time. Unlike the exponential waiting time case, the superdiffusion regime starts immediately at N=1N=1. The framework presented allows considering any type of waiting-time distribution between steps and transition to continuous time using subordination methods. Our findings are also validated through computer simulations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2409.02696,
  title  = {Driven Lorentz model in discrete time},
  author = {Dan Shafir and Alessio Squarcini and Stanislav Burov and Thomas Franosch},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.02696},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

16 pages, 8 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:33:59.888Z