Formation of density waves via interface conversion of ballistic and diffusive motion

TL;DR

This paper presents a mechanism to control the conversion between ballistic and diffusive particle motion at interfaces in driven lattice systems, enabling the engineering of persistent density waves for nonequilibrium dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel interface-based method for converting ballistic to diffusive motion and creating stable density waves in inhomogeneously driven lattices.

Findings

Long-time transient density oscillations can be stabilized as permanent waves.

The mechanism allows for precise control of particle density distributions.

Potential applications in designing nonequilibrium particle transport systems.

Abstract

We develop a mechanism for the controlled conversion of ballistic to diffusive motion and vice versa. This process takes place at the interfaces of domains with different time-dependent forces in lattices of laterally oscillating barrier potentials. As a consequence long-time transient oscillations of the particle density are formed which can be converted to permanent density waves by an appropriate tuning of the driving forces. The proposed mechanism opens the perspective of an engineering of the nonequilibrium dynamics of particles in inhomogeneously driven lattices.