Ageing underdamped scaled Brownian motion: ensemble and time averaged particle displacements, non-ergodicity, and the failure of the overdamping approximation

TL;DR

This paper explores the effects of inertia and ageing on the diffusion behavior of particles in a medium with time-dependent diffusivity, revealing non-ergodic properties and limitations of the overdamped approximation.

Contribution

It introduces the underdamped scaled Brownian motion model, analyzing how inertia influences MSD and ergodicity in non-stationary diffusion processes with ageing.

Findings

Ballistic regime is shorter for superdiffusive UDSBM.

Longer ballistic regime in subdiffusive UDSBM.

Overdamped approximation may fail at long times.

Abstract

We investigate both analytically and by computer simulations the ensemble averaged, time averaged, non-ergodic, and ageing properties of massive particles diffusing in a medium with a time dependent diffusivity. We call this stochastic diffusion process the (ageing) underdamped scaled Brownian motion (UDSBM). We demonstrate how the mean squared displacement (MSD) and the time averaged MSD of UDSBM are affected by the inertial term in the Langevin equation, both at short, intermediate, and even long diffusion times. In particular, we quantify the ballistic regime for the MSD and the time averaged MSD as well as the spread of individual time averaged MSD trajectories. One of the main effects we observe is that---both for the MSD and the time averaged MSD---for superdiffusive UDSBM the ballistic regime is much shorter than for ordinary Brownian motion. In contrast, for subdiffusive UDSBM the ballistic region extends to much longer diffusion times. Therefore, particular care needs to be taken when the overdamped limit indeed provides a correct description, even in the long time limit. We also analyze to what extent ergodicity in the Boltzmann-Khinchin sense in this non-stationary system is broken, both for subdiffusive and superdiffusive UDSBM. Finally, the limiting case of ultraslow UDSBM is considered, with a mixed logarithmic and power law dependence of the ensemble and time averaged MSDs of the particles. In the limit of strong ageing, remarkably, the ordinary UDSBM and the ultraslow UDSBM behave similarly in the short time ballistic limit. The approaches developed here open new ways for considering other stochastic processes under physically important conditions when a finite particle mass and ageing in the system cannot be neglected.