Anomalous diffusion in the square soft Lorentz gas

Abstract

We demonstrate and analyze anomalous diffusion properties of point-like particles in a two-dimensional system with circular scatterers arranged in a square lattice and governed by smooth potentials, referred to as the square soft Lorentz gas. Our numerical simulations reveal a rich interplay of normal and anomalous diffusion depending on the system parameters. To describe diffusion in normal regimes, we develop a unit cell hopping model that, in the single-hop limit, recovers the Machta-Zwanzig approximation and converges toward the numerical diffusion coefficient as the number of hops increases. Anomalous diffusion is characterized by quasiballistic orbits forming Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser islands in phase space, alongside a complex tongue structure in parameter space defined by the interscatterer distance and potential softness. The distributions of the particle displacement vector show notable similarities to both analytical and numerical results for a hard-wall square Lorentz gas, exhibiting Gaussian behavior in normal diffusion and long tails due to quasiballistic orbits in anomalous regimes. Our work thus provides a catalog of key dynamical system properties that characterize the intricate changes in diffusion when transitioning from hard billiards to soft potentials.