Microscopic Derivation of Non-Markovian Thermalization of a Brownian Particle

TL;DR

This paper develops a microscopic, non-Markovian model for Brownian motion where the bath's density is comparable to the particle's, revealing complex dynamics but preserving classical relations like the Stokes-Einstein law.

Contribution

It introduces a new non-local evolution equation for Brownian thermalization derived from an extended Boltzmann equation, applicable when the bath density is significant.

Findings

Derived a non-local, non-Markovian evolution equation for Brownian motion.

Showed the Stokes-Einstein law remains valid despite complex dynamics.

Provided a microscopic expression for the friction coefficient.

Abstract

In this paper, the first microscopic approach to the Brownian motion is developed in the case where the mass density of the suspending bath is of the same order of magnitude as that of the Brownian (B) particle. Starting from an extended Boltzmann equation, which describes correctly the interaction with the fluid, we derive systematicaly via the multiple time-scale analysis a reduced equation controlling the thermalization of the B particle, i.e. the relaxation towards the Maxwell distribution in velocity space. In contradistinction to the Fokker-Planck equation, the derived new evolution equation is non-local both in time and in velocity space, owing to correlated recollision events between the fluid and particle B. In the long-time limit, it describes a non-markovian generalized Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. However, in spite of this complex dynamical behaviour, the Stokes-Einstein law relating the friction and diffusion coefficients is shown to remain valid. A microscopic expression for the friction coefficient is derived, which acquires the form of the Stokes law in the limit where the mean-free in the gas is small compared to the radius of particle B.