Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Lubelski, Ariel
• Sokolov, Igor M
• Klafter, Joseph

Titel

Nonergodicity mimics inhomogeneity in single particle tracking

Ist Teil von

• Physical review letters, 2008-06, Vol.100 (25), p.250602-250602, Article 250602

Ort / Verlag

United States

Erscheinungsjahr

2008

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

APS

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Most statistical theories of anomalous diffusion rely on ensemble-averaged quantities such as the mean squared displacement. Single molecule tracking measurements require, however, temporal averaging. We contrast the two approaches in the case of continuous-time random walks with a power-law distribution of waiting times psi(t) proportional to t{-1-alpha}, with 0<alpha<1, lacking the mean. We show that, contrary to what is expected, the temporal averaged mean squared displacement leads to a simple diffusive behavior with diffusion coefficients that strongly differ from one trajectory to another. This distribution of diffusion coefficients renders a system inhomogeneous: an ensemble of simple diffusers with different diffusion coefficients. Taking an ensemble average over these diffusion coefficients results in an effective diffusion coefficient K{eff} approximately T{alpha-1} which depends on the length of the trajectory T.