Ballistic file diffusion of hard-core particles in one-dimensional channels: A numerical study

Abstract

One-dimensional movement of interacting particles is a challenging problem where the correlation between particles induces non-trivial collective effects. In contrast to the single-file diffusion case, the pure ballistic single-file movement of particles has received less attention. Here, the ballistic file diffusion of hard disks is studied using an adaptative continuum Monte Carlo numerical scheme. Dynamics is studied as a function of the size of the particles, the system size and the number of particles. The mean-square displacement presents three regimes corresponding to independent motion, collective motion and finite-size effects. These regimes and the crossover times between them are analyzed and presented in analogy with the ones observed for the single-file diffusion problem.