Long-range and many-body effects in coagulation processes

Winkler, Anton A. and Frey, Erwin (February 2013): Long-range and many-body effects in coagulation processes. In: Physical Review E, Vol. 87, No. 2: 022136-1

Abstract

We study the problem of diffusing particles which coalesce upon contact. With the aid of a nonperturbative renormalization group, we first analyze the dynamics emerging below the critical dimension two, where strong fluctuations imply anomalously slow decay. Above two dimensions, the long-time, low-density behavior is known to conform with the law of mass action. For this case, we establish an exact mapping between the physics at the microscopic scale (lattice structure, particle shape and size) and the macroscopic decay rate in the law of mass action. In addition, we identify a term violating this classical law. It originates in long-range and many-particle fluctuations and is a simple, universal function of the macroscopic decay rate. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.87.022136

• Item Type: Journal article
• Form of publication: Publisher's Version
• Faculties: Physics
• Subjects: 500 Science > 530 Physics
• ISSN: 1539-3755
• Place of Publication: ONE PHYSICS ELLIPSE, COLLEGE PK, MD 20740-3844 USA
• Language: English