arXiv subjects

Francisco J. Sevilla

Publications and source records attributed to Francisco J. Sevilla.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Active motion on curved surfaces

A theoretical analysis of active motion on curved surfaces is presented in terms of a generalization of the Telegrapher's equation. Such generalized equation is explicitly derived as the polar approximation of the hierarchy of equations obtained from the corresponding Fokker-Planck equation of active particles diffusing on curved surfaces. The general solution to the generalized telegrapher's equation is given for a pulse with vanishing current as initial data. Expressions for the probability density and the mean squared geodesic-displacement are given in the limit of weak curvature. As an explicit example of the formulated theory, the case of active motion on the sphere is presented, where oscillations observed in the mean squared geodesic-displacement are explained.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2016

Thermodynamics of low-dimensional trapped Fermi gases

The effects of low dimensionality on the thermodynamics of a Fermi gas trapped by isotropic power law potentials are analyzed. Particular attention is given to different characteristic temperatures that emerge, at low dimensionality, in the thermodynamic functions of state and in the thermodynamic susceptibilities (isothermal compressibility and specific heat). An energy-entropy argument that physically favors the relevance of one of these characteristic temperatures, namely, the non vanishing temperature at which the chemical potential reaches the Fermi energy value, is presented. Such an argument allows to interpret the nonmonotonic dependence of the chemical potential on temperature, as an indicator of the appearance of a thermodynamic regime, where the equilibrium states of a trapped Fermi gas are characterized by larger fluctuations in energy and particle density as is revealed in the corresponding thermodynamics susceptibilities.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Diffusion of active chiral particles

The diffusion of chiral active Brownian particles in three-dimensional space is studied analytically, by consideration of the corresponding Fokker-Planck equation for the probability density of finding a particle at position $\boldsymbol{x}$ and moving along the direction $\hat{\boldsymbol{v}}$ at time $t$, and numerically, by the use of Langevin dynamics simulations. The analysis is focused on the marginal probability density of finding a particle at a given location and at a given time (independently of its direction of motion), which is found from an infinite hierarchy of differential-recurrence relations for the coefficients that appear in the multipole expansion of the probability distribution which contains the whole kinematic information. This approach allows the explicit calculation of the time dependence of the mean squared displacement and the time dependence of the kurtosis of the marginal probability distribution, quantities from which the effective diffusion coefficient and the "shape" of the positions distribution are examined. Oscillations between two characteristic values were found in the time evolution of the kurtosis, namely, between the value that corresponds to a Gaussian and the one that corresponds to a distribution of spherical shell shape. In the case of an ensemble of particles, each one rotating around an uniformly-distributed random axis, it is found evidence of the so called effect "anomalous, yet Brownian, diffusion", for which particles follow a non-Gaussian distribution for the positions yet the mean squared displacement is a linear function of time.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2015

Smoluchowski Diffusion Equation for Active Brownian Swimmers

We study the free diffusion in two dimensions of active-Brownian swimmers subject to passive fluctuations on the translational motion and to active fluctuations on the rotational one. The Smoluchowski equation is derived from a Langevin-like model of active swimmers, and analytically solved in the long-time regime for arbitrary values of the Péclet number, this allows us to analyze the out-of-equilibrium evolution of the positions distribution of active particles at all time regimes. Explicit expressions for the mean-square displacement and for the kurtosis of the probability distribution function are presented, and the effects of persistence discussed. We show through Brownian dynamics simulations that our prescription for the mean-square displacement gives the exact time dependence at all times. The departure of the probability distribution from a Gaussian, measured by the kurtosis, is also analyzed both analytically and computationally. We find that for Péclet numbers $\lesssim 0.1$, the distance from Gaussian increases as $\sim t^{-2}$ at short times, while it diminishes as $\sim t^{-1}$ in the asymptotic limit.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2014

Synchronization and collective motion of globally coupled Brownian particles

In this work, we study a system of passive Brownian (non-self-propelled) particles in two dimensions, interacting only through a social-like force (velocity alignment in this case) that resembles Kuramoto's coupling among phase oscillators. We show that the kinematical stationary states of the system go from a phase in thermal equilibrium with no net flux of particles, to far-from-equilibrium phases exhibiting collective motion by increasing the coupling among particles. The mechanism that leads to the instability of the equilibrium phase relies on the competition between two time scales, namely, the mean collision time of the Brownian particles in a thermal bath and the time it takes for a particle to orient its direction of motion along the direction of motion of the group.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2014

Emergence of collective motion in a model of interacting Brownian particles

By studying a system of Brownian particles, interacting only through a local social-like force (velocity alignment), we show that self-propulsion is not a necessary feature for the flocking transition to take place as long as underdamped particle dynamics can be guaranteed. Moreover, the system transits from stationary phases close to thermal equilibrium, with no net flux of particles, to far-from-equilibrium ones exhibiting collective motion, long-range order and giant number fluctuations, features typically associated to ordered phases of models where self-propulsion is considered.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2014

Thermodynamics of the Relativistic Fermi gas in D Dimensions

The influence of spatial dimensionality and particle-antiparticle pair production on the thermodynamic properties of the relativistic Fermi gas, at finite chemical potential, is studied. Resembling a kind of phase transition, qualitatively different behaviors of the thermodynamic susceptibilities, namely the isothermal compressibility and the specific heat, are markedly observed at different temperature regimes as function of the system dimensionality and of the rest mass of the particles. A minimum in the isothermal compressibility marks a characteristic temperature, in the range of tenths of the Fermi temperature, at which the system transit from a normal phase, to a phase where the gas compressibility grows as a power law of the temperature. Curiously, we find that for a particle density of a few times the density of nuclear matter, and rest masses of the order of 10 MeV, the minimum of the compressibility occurs at approximately 170 MeV/k, which roughly estimates the critical temperature of hot fermions as those occurring in the gluon-quark plasma phase transition.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2014

Active Particles Moving in Two-Dimensional Space with Constant Speed: Revisiting the Telegrapher's Equation

Starting from a Langevin description of active particles that move with constant speed in infinite two-dimensional space and its corresponding Fokker-Planck equation, we develop a systematic method that allows us to obtain the coarse-grained probability density of finding a particle at a given location and at a given time to arbitrary short time regimes. By going beyond the diffusive limit, we derive a novel generalization of the telegrapher's equation. Such generalization preserves the hyperbolic structure of the equation and incorporates memory effects on the diffusive term. While no difference is observed for the mean square displacement computed from the two-dimensional telegrapher's equation and from our generalization, the kurtosis results into a sensible parameter that discriminates between both approximations. We carried out a comparative analysis in Fourier space that shed light on why the telegrapher's equation is not an appropriate model to describe the propagation of particles with constant speed in dispersive media.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2011

Revisiting the concept of chemical potential in classical and quantum gases: A perspective from Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics

In this work we revisit the concept of chemical potential $μ$ in both classical and quantum gases from a perspective of Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics (ESM). Two new results regarding the equation of state $μ=μ(n,T)$, where $n$ is the particle density and $T$ the absolute temperature, are given for the classical interacting gas and for the weakly-interacting quantum Bose gas. In order to make this review self-contained and adequate for a general reader we provide all the basic elements in an advanced-undergraduate or graduate statistical mechanics course required to follow all the calculations. We start by presenting a calculation of $μ(n,T)$ for the classical ideal gas in the canonical ensemble. After this, we consider the interactions between particles and compute the effects of them on $μ(n,T)$ for the van der Waals gas. For quantum gases we present an alternative approach to calculate the Bose-Einstein (BE) and Fermi-Dirac (FD) statistics. We show that this scheme can be straightforwardly generalized to determine what we have called Intermediate Quantum Statistics (IQS) which deal with ideal quantum systems where a single-particle energy can be occupied by at most $j$ particles with $0 \leqslant j \leqslant N$ with $N$ the total number of particles. In the final part we address general considerations that underlie the theory of weakly interacting quantum gases. In the case of the weakly interacting Bose gas, we focus our attention to the equation of state $μ=μ(n,T)$ in the Hartree-Fock mean-field approximation (HF) and the implications of such results in the elucidation of the order of the phase transitions involved in the BEC phase for non-ideal Bose gases.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗