https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/s10051-024-00704-5
Regular Article - Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Laplace’s first law of errors applied to diffusive motion
1
Physics Department, Bar-Ilan University, 52900, Ramat-Gan, Israel
2
Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Bar-Ilan University, 52900, Ramat-Gan, Israel
Received:
27
February
2024
Accepted:
4
May
2024
Published online:
3
June
2024
In biological, glassy, and active systems, various tracers exhibit Laplace-like, i.e., exponential, spreading of the diffusing packet of particles. The limitations of the central limit theorem in fully capturing the behaviors of such diffusive processes, especially in the tails, have been studied using the continuous time random walk model. For cases when the jump length distribution is super-exponential, e.g., a Gaussian, we use large deviations theory and relate it to the appearance of exponential tails. When the jump length distribution is sub-exponential, the packet of spreading particles is described by the big jump principle. We demonstrate the applicability of our approach for finite time, indicating that rare events and the asymptotics of the large deviations rate function can be sampled for large length scales within a reasonably short measurement time.
Invited paper for the topical issue in the European Physical Journal B: New Trends in Statistical Physics of Complex Systems: Theoretical and Experimental Approaches.
© The Author(s) 2024
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