Anomalous transport in heterogeneous media

Abstract

The diffusion dynamics of particles in heterogeneous media is studied using particle-based simulation techniques. A special focus is placed on systems where the transport of particles at long times exhibits anomalies such as subdiffusive or superdiffusive behavior. First, a two-dimensional model system is considered containing gas particles (tracers) that diffuse through a random arrangement of pinned, disk-shaped particles. This system is similar to a classical Lorentz gas. However, different from the original Lorentz model, soft instead of hard interactions are considered and we also discuss the case where the tracer particles interact with each other. We show that the modification from hard to soft interactions strongly affects anomalous-diffusive transport at high obstacle densities. Second, non-linear active micro-rheology in a glass-forming binary Yukawa mixture is investigated, pulling single particles through a deeply supercooled state by applying a constant force. Here, we observe superdiffusion in force direction and analyze its origin. Finally, we consider the Brownian dynamics of a particle which is pulled through a two-dimensional random force field. We discuss the similarities of this model with the Lorentz gas as well as active micro-rheology in glass-forming systems.