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Updated: May 7, 2026

Synthesis of Cyclic Polymers and Characterization of Their Diffusive Motion in the Melt State at the Single Molecule Level
Published on: September 26, 2016
Everlasting effect of initial conditions on single-file diffusion
1Department of Physics, Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel.
Abstract:
We study the dynamics of a tagged particle in an environment of point Brownian particles with hard-core interactions in an infinite one-dimensional channel (a single-file model). In particular, we examine the influence of initial conditions on the dynamics of the tagged particle. We compare two initial conditions: equal distances between particles and uniform density distribution. The effect is shown by the differences of mean-square-displacement and correlation function for the two ensembles of initial conditions. We discuss the violation of Einstein relation, and its dependence on the initial condition, and the difference between time and ensemble averaging. More specifically, using the Jepsen line, we will discuss how transport coefficients, like diffusivity, depend on the initial state. Our work shows that initial conditions determine the long time limit of the dynamics, and in this sense the system never forgets its initial state in complete contrast with thermal systems (i.e., a closed system that attains equilibrium independent of the initial state).
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