Anomalous dynamics in tracer-particle motions in an electrohydrodynamically driven oil-in-oil system

TL;DR

This study investigates super-diffusive tracer particle dynamics in an electrohydrodynamically driven oil-in-oil emulsion, revealing non-Gaussian displacement distributions and spatially varying velocities that lead to a characteristic superdiffusive behavior.

Contribution

It demonstrates the emergence of superdiffusive dynamics with a specific power law in a spatially varying electrohydrodynamic system, linking it to the underlying velocity field and extracting a relevant length scale.

Findings

Tracer particles exhibit superdiffusive motion with a   power law.

Displacement distributions are non-Gaussian, exponential at short times.

A spatially varying velocity field underpins the superdiffusive behavior.

Abstract

We characterize the super-diffusive dynamics of tracer particles in an electrohydrodynamically driven emulsion of oil droplets in an immiscible oil medium, where the amplitude and frequency of an external electric field are the control parameters. In the weakly-driven electrohydrodynamic regime, the droplets are trapped dielectrophoretically on a patterned electrode, and the driving is therefore spatially varying. We find excellent agreement with a $\langle x^2 \rangle \sim t^{1.5}$ power law, and find that this superdiffusive dynamics arises from an underlying displacement distribution that is distinctly non-Gaussian, and exponential for small displacements and short times. While these results are comparable with a random-velocity field model, the tracer particle speeds are in fact spatially varying in 2 dimensions, arising from a spatially varying electrohydrodynamic driving force. This suggests that the important ingredient for the super-diffusive $t^{1.5}$ behaviour observed is a velocity field that is isotropic in the plane and spatially correlated. Finally, we can extract, from the superdiffusive dynamics, a experimental lengthscale that corresponds to the lateral range of the hydrodynamic flows. This experimental length scale is only non-zero above a threshold ion mobility length.