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Boundary-Induced Drift and Negative Mobility in Constrained Stochastic Systems

M. Goldfarb,S. Burov

Published 2026 in Unknown venue

ABSTRACT

We study overdamped stochastic dynamics confined by hard reflecting boundaries and show that the combination of boundary geometry and an anisotropic diffusion tensor generically generates directed motion. At the level of individual trajectories, the no-flux condition enforces an oblique reflection at the boundary, which produces a systematic drift parallel to the surface. The resulting local velocity takes the general form $v_B(\mathbf{x})=\mathbf{t}(\mathbf{x})^{\!\top}\mathbf{D}\,\mathbf{n}(\mathbf{x})$, determined by the diffusion tensor $\mathbf{D}$ and the local boundary geometry encoded in the normal $\mathbf{n}$ and tangent $\mathbf{t}$. While this boundary-induced drift is local, it can accumulate into a macroscopic response, depending on the statistics of boundary encounters. We illustrate how this local boundary-induced drift gives rise to macroscopic transport using a minimal one-dimensional dimer composed of two particles with unequal diffusion coefficients. The repeated collisions act as reflections in configuration space and lead to sustained center-of-mass motion, including regimes of absolute negative mobility under constant forcing.

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