Aging dynamics in interacting many-body systems

Abstract

Low-dimensional, complex systems are often characterized by logarithmically slow dynamics. We study the generic motion of a labeled particle in an ensemble of identical diffusing particles with hardcore interactions in a strongly disordered, one-dimensional environment. Each particle in this single file is trapped for a random waiting time $τ$ with power law distribution $ψ(τ)\simeqτ^{-1- α}$, such that the $τ$ values are independent, local quantities for all particles. From scaling arguments and simulations, we find that for the scale-free waiting time case $0<α<1$, the tracer particle dynamics is ultra-slow with a logarithmic mean square displacement (MSD) $\langle x^2(t)\rangle\simeq(\log t)^{1/2}$. This extreme slowing down compared to regular single file motion $\langle x^2(t)\rangle\simeq t^{1/2}$ is due to the high likelihood that the labeled particle keeps encountering strongly immobilized neighbors. For the case $1<α<2$ we observe the MSD scaling $\langle x^2(t)\rangle\simeq t^γ$, where $γ<1/2$, while for $α>2$ we recover Harris law $\simeq t^{1/2}$.