English

How to Measure Subdiffusion Parameters

Statistical Mechanics 2009-11-11 v1 Soft Condensed Matter

Abstract

We propose a method to measure the subdiffusion parameter α\alpha and subdiffusion coefficient DαD_{\alpha} which are defined by means of the relation <x2>=2DαΓ(1+α)tα<x^2> =\frac{2D_\alpha} {\Gamma(1+\alpha)} t^\alpha where <x2><x^2> denotes a mean square displacement of a random walker starting from x=0x=0 at the initial time t=0t=0. The method exploits a membrane system where a substance of interest is transported in a solvent from one vessel to another across a thin membrane which plays here only an auxiliary role. We experimentally study a diffusion of glucose and sucrose in a gel solvent, and we precisely determine the parameters α\alpha and DαD_{\alpha}, using a fully analytic solution of the fractional subdiffusion equation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0504261,
  title  = {How to Measure Subdiffusion Parameters},
  author = {T. Kosztolowicz and K. Dworecki and St. Mrowczynski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0504261},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

short version of cond-mat/0309072, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett