Asymptotic behaviour of randomly reflecting billiards in unbounded tubular domains

Menshikov, M.V.; Vachkovskaia, M.; Wade, A.R.

Abstract

We study stochastic billiards in infinite planar domains with curvilinear boundaries: that is, piecewise deterministic motion with randomness introduced via random reflections at the domain boundary. Physical motivation for the process originates with ideal gas models in the Knudsen regime, with particles reflecting off microscopically rough surfaces. We classify the process into recurrent and transient cases. We also give almost-sure results on the long-term behaviour of the location of the particle, including a super-diffusive rate of escape in the transient case. A key step in obtaining our results is to relate our process to an instance of a one-dimensional stochastic process with asymptotically zero drift, for which we prove some new almost-sure bounds of independent interest. We obtain some of these bounds via an application of general semimartingale criteria, also of some independent interest.

Citation

Menshikov, M., Vachkovskaia, M., & Wade, A. (2008). Asymptotic behaviour of randomly reflecting billiards in unbounded tubular domains. Journal of Statistical Physics, 132(6), 1097-1133. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-008-9578-z

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2008
• Deposit Date: Mar 1, 2011
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 31, 2013
• Journal: Journal of Statistical Physics
• Print ISSN: 0022-4715
• Electronic ISSN: 1572-9613
• Publisher: Springer
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 132
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 1097-1133
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-008-9578-z
• Keywords: Stochastic billiards, Rarefied gas dynamics, Knudsen random walk, Random reflections, Recurrence/transience, Lamperti problem, Almost-sure bounds, Birth-and-death chain.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1534094