Accelerating random walks by disorder

Abstract

We investigate the dynamic impact of heterogeneous environments on superdiffusive random walks known as Levy flights. We devote particular attention to the relative weight of source and target locations on the rates for spatial displacements of the random walk. Unlike ordinary random walks which are slowed down for all values of the relative weight of source and target, non-local superdiffusive processes show distinct regimes of attenuation and acceleration for increased source and target weight, respectively. Consequently, spatial inhomogeneities can facilitate the spread of superdiffusive processes, in contrast to the common belief that external disorder generally slows down stochastic processes. Our results are based on a novel type of fractional Fokker-Planck equation which we investigate numerically and by perturbation theory for weak disorder. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.