Fractional Langevin equation from damped bath dynamics

Scaling and universality in Brownian motion on a stochastic harmonic oscillator chain

Diffusion of a Brownian particle along a stochastic harmonic oscillator chain is investigated. In contrast to the usually discussed Brownian motion driven by Gaussian white noise, the particle at high temperatures performs long Lévy flights. At high temperatures T the diffusion coefficient scales as D∼T^{2+α}, where the parameter α determine the average damping force ∝1/(T^{α}P) on the particle at large momentum P and at high temperature. The exponent α depends on the particle-chain interaction and chain properties. It is shown that the mean time t[over ¯]_{f} necessary to perform a flight of l lattice constant scales with l as t[over ¯]_{f}∝l^{2/3} at high temperatures and flight lengths. Last, the flight length probability distribution is found to decay as 1/l^{β} with the exponent β=4/3 being universal, i.e., independent of the model parameters.

Two modes of cluster dynamics govern the viscoelasticity of colloidal gels

Colloidal gels formed by strongly attractive particles at low particle volume fractions are composed of space-spanning networks of uniformly sized clusters. We study the thermal fluctuations of the clusters using differential dynamic microscopy by decomposing them into two modes of dynamics, and link them to the macroscopic viscoelasticity via rheometry. The first mode, dominant at early times, represents the localized, elastic fluctuations of individual clusters. The second mode, pronounced at late times, reflects the collective, viscoelastic dynamics facilitated by the connectivity of the clusters. By mixing two types of particles of distinct attraction strengths in different proportions, we control the transition time at which the collective mode starts to dominate, and hence tune the frequency dependence of the linear viscoelastic moduli of the binary gels.