title: Spectrum of the fokker-planck operator representing diffusion in a random velocity field
abstract: We study spectral properties of the Fokker-Planck operator that represents particles moving via a combination of diffusion and advection in a time-independent random velocity field, presenting in detail work outlined elsewhere [J. T. Chalker and Z. J. Wang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 1797 (1997)]. We calculate analytically the ensemble-averaged one-particle Green function and the eigenvalue density for this Fokker-Planck operator, using a diagrammatic expansion developed for resolvents of non-Hermitian random operators, together with a mean-field approximation (the self-consistent Born approximation) which is well controlled in the weak-disorder regime for dimension d>2. The eigenvalue density in the complex plane is nonzero within a wedge that encloses the negative real axis. Particle motion is diffusive at long times, but for short times we find a novel time dependence of the mean-square displacement, <r(2)> approximately t(2/d) in dimension d>2, associated with the imaginary parts of eigenvalues.
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Physics, Oxford University, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3NP, United Kingdom.
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Chalker
authors.initials: ZJ
authors.lastname: Wang