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Updated: Jun 1, 2026

Visually Based Characterization of the Incipient Particle Motion in Regular Substrates: From Laminar to Turbulent Conditions
Published on: February 22, 2018
Effective surface motion on a reactive cylinder of particles that perform intermittent bulk diffusion
Aleksei V Chechkin1, Irwin M Zaid, Michael A Lomholt
1Institute for Theoretical Physics NSC KIPT, Akademicheskaya St.1, 61108 Kharkov, Ukraine.
Abstract:
In many biological and small scale technological applications particles may transiently bind to a cylindrical surface. In between two binding events the particles diffuse in the bulk, thus producing an effective translation on the cylindrical surface. We here derive the effective motion on the surface allowing for additional diffusion on the cylindrical surface itself. We find explicit solutions for the number of adsorbed particles at one given instant, the effective surface displacement, as well as the surface propagator. In particular sub- and superdiffusive regimes are found, as well as an effective stalling of diffusion visible as a plateau in the mean squared displacement. We also investigate the corresponding first passage problem.
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