Brownian yet non-Gaussian diffusion in heterogeneous media: from superstatistics to homogenization

Abstract

We discuss the situations under which Brownian yet non-Gaussian (BnG) diffusion can be observed in the model of a particle’s motion in a random landscape of diffusion coefficients slowly varying in space (quenched disorder). Our conclusion is that such behavior is extremely unlikely in the situations when the particles, introduced into the system at random at t = 0, are observed from the preparation of the system on. However, it indeed may arise in the case when the diffusion (as described in Ito interpretation) is observed under equilibrated conditions. This paradigmatic situation can be translated into the model of the diffusion coefficient fluctuating in time along a trajectory, i.e. into a kind of the ‘diffusing diffusivity’ model.