Asymmetric Diffusion
| dc.creator | Packard, Norman | |
| dc.creator | Shaw, Rob | |
| dc.date | 2004-12-22 | |
| dc.date | 2005-09-14 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T03:02:53Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T03:02:53Z | |
| dc.description | Diffusion rates through a membrane can be asymmetric, if the diffusing particles are spatially extended and the pores in the membrane have asymmetric structure. This phenomenon is demonstrated here via a deterministic simulation of a two-species hard-disk gas, and via simulations of two species in Brownian motion, diffusing through a membrane that is permeable to one species but not the other. In its extreme form, this effect will rapidly seal off flow in one direction through a membrane, while allowing free flow in the other direction. The system thus relaxes to disequilibrium, with very different densities of the permeable species on each side of the membrane. A single species of appropriately shaped particles will exhibit the same effect when diffusing through appropriately shaped pores. We hypothesize that purely geometric effects discussed here may play a role in common biological contexts such as membrane ion channels. | |
| dc.description | 17 pages, 8 figures v3: one additional figure, several additional references, conceptually unchanged | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0412626 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0412626 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/25559 | |
| dc.subject | Statistical Mechanics | |
| dc.title | Asymmetric Diffusion | |
| dc.type | text |