entropy-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Transport in Complex Environments

A special issue of Entropy (ISSN 1099-4300). This special issue belongs to the section "Statistical Physics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 May 2025 | Viewed by 1419

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA
Interests: stochastic processes; nonlinear dynamics; protein aggregation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Brownian motion (BM), pioneered by Einstein, Smoluchowski, and Langevin in the early 20th century, is a well-established theory with applications across nearly all scientific, engineering, and mathematical finance disciplines. However, despite its universality, the BM theory cannot accurately describe transport phenomena in complex environments. These phenomena include molecular diffusion in supercooled liquids, colloidal suspensions, and intracellular environments, as well as examples of active motion, such as synthetic nanomotors, cell movement, motility of microorganisms, and animal foraging.

Transport in complex environments deviates from the standard Brownian motion primarily due to the presence of anomalous diffusion with prominent non-Gaussian characteristics. Even seemingly Fickian diffusion processes may display persistent or transient non-Gaussianity. To add to these intriguing observations, transport in complex environments often exhibits aging characteristics with slow power-law-like relaxation dynamics and ergodicity breaking.

This Special Issue provides a platform for theoretical and computational studies that aim to advance our understanding of transport in complex environments. We welcome diverse approaches, such as continuous-time random walks, fractional diffusion and Fokker-Planck equations, fractional Brownian motion, the Langevin equation, its generalizations, and other types of correlated random walks. We also encourage the submission of review articles as well as studies that directly compare theoretical models with experimental results.

Dr. Nikolaos Voulgarakis
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Entropy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • anomalous diffusion
  • active Brownian motion
  • Fickian yet non-Gaussian diffusion
  • aging phenomena
  • ergodicity breaking
  • complex fluids
  • cell migration
  • animals foraging

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

17 pages, 4578 KiB  
Article
Simulation Studies of Dynamical Heterogeneity in a Dense Two-Dimensional Dimer–Solvent System with Obstacles
by Piotr Polanowski and Andrzej Sikorski
Entropy 2024, 26(12), 1086; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26121086 - 12 Dec 2024
Viewed by 645
Abstract
A coarse-grained model of a two-dimensional colloidal suspension was designed. The model was athermal and, in addition, a lattice approximation was introduced. It consisted of solvent (monomer) molecules, dimer molecules, and immobile impenetrable obstacles that introduced additional heterogeneity into the system. Dynamic properties [...] Read more.
A coarse-grained model of a two-dimensional colloidal suspension was designed. The model was athermal and, in addition, a lattice approximation was introduced. It consisted of solvent (monomer) molecules, dimer molecules, and immobile impenetrable obstacles that introduced additional heterogeneity into the system. Dynamic properties were determined by a Monte Carlo simulation using the dynamic lattice liquid simulation algorithm. It is shown that there is a range of obstacle concentrations in which different diffusion characteristics were observed for dimers and solvents. In the system studied, it is possible to define the ranges of concentrations of individual components (solvent, dimers, and obstacles), in which the nature of the movement of dimers and solvents is different (normal diffusion vs. subdiffusion). The ratio of diffusion coefficients of solvent molecules and dimers for short times does not depend on the concentration of obstacles, while for long times, the ratio increases but remains independent of the concentration of the dimer. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Transport in Complex Environments)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop