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2006

Kinetic theory

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A Brownian Particle Having A Fluctuating Mass, Marcel Ausloos, Renaud Lambiotte Jan 2006

A Brownian Particle Having A Fluctuating Mass, Marcel Ausloos, Renaud Lambiotte

Renaud Lambiotte

We focus on the dynamics of a Brownian particle whose mass fluctuates. First we show that the behaviour is similar to that of a Brownian particle moving in a fluctuating medium, as studied by Beck. By performing numerical simulations of the Langevin equation, we check the theoretical predictions derived in the adiabatic limit, and study deviations outside this limit. We compare the mass velocity distribution with truncated Tsallis distributions and find excellent agreement if the masses are chi-squared distributed. We also consider the diffusion of the Brownian particle by studying a Bernoulli random walk with fluctuating walk length in one …