Mobile-clogging transition in a Fermi-like model of counterflowing particles

TL;DR

This paper introduces a generalized Fermi-like model for counterflowing particles, revealing a sharp transition from mobile to clogged states at a critical parameter, supported by PDE and Monte Carlo simulations.

Contribution

It presents a novel model capturing the clogging transition in counterflowing particles using a Fermi-Dirac-like distribution, bridging stochastic and deterministic regimes.

Findings

Identifies a critical parameter $\alpha_c$ for clogging transition.

Shows abrupt transition from mobility to clogging with condensate formation.

Validates results with PDE and Monte Carlo simulations.

Abstract

In this paper we propose a generalized model for the motion of a two-species self-driven objects ranging from a scenario of a completely random environment of particles of negligible excluded volume to a more deterministic regime of rigid objects in an environment. Each cell of the system has a maximum occupation level called $\sigma _{\max }$. Both species move in opposite directions. The probability of any given particle to move to a neighboring cell depends on the occupation of this cell according to a Fermi-Dirac like distribution, considering a parameter $\alpha $ that controls the system randomness. We show that for a certain $\alpha =\alpha _{c}$ the system abruptly transits from a mobile scenario to a clogged state which is characterized by condensates. We numerically describe the details of this transition by coupled partial differential equations (PDE) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations that are in good agreement.