Nonlinear drag forces and the thermostatistics of overdamped motion

Abstract

Diverse processes in statistical physics are usually analyzed on the assumption that the drag force acting on a test particle moving in a resisting medium is linear on the velocity of the particle. However, nonlinear drag forces do appear in relevant situations that are currently the focus of experimental and theoretical work. Motivated by these developments, we explore the consequences of nonlinear drag forces for the thermostatistics of systems of interacting particles performing overdamped motion. We derive a family of nonlinear Fokker-Planck equations for these systems, taking into account the effects of nonlinear drag forces. We investigate the main properties of these evolution equations, including an H-theorem, and obtain exact solutions of the stretched q-exponential form.