Anomalous diffusion and response in branched systems: a simple analysis

Giuseppe Forte, Raffaella Burioni, Fabio Cecconi, Angelo Vulpiani

Published 2013-11-19Version 1

We revisit the diffusion properties and the mean drift induced by an external field of a random walk process in a class of branched structures, as the comb lattice and the linear chains of plaquettes. A simple treatment based on scaling arguments is able to predict the correct anomalous regime for different topologies. In addition, we show that even in the presence of anomalous diffusion, Einstein's relation still holds, implying a proportionality between the mean square displacement of the unperturbed systems and the drift induced by an external forcing.