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Phys. Rev. E 73, 031109 (2006) [6 pages]

Alignment of rods and partition of integers

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E. Ben-Naim1 and P. L. Krapivsky2
1Theoretical Division and Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
2Department of Physics and Center for Molecular Cybernetics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, USA

Received 8 December 2005; published 13 March 2006

We study dynamical ordering of rods. In this process, rod alignment via pairwise interactions competes with diffusive wiggling. Under strong diffusion, the system is disordered, but at weak diffusion, the system is ordered. We present an exact steady-state solution for the nonlinear and nonlocal kinetic theory of this process. We find the Fourier transform as a function of the order parameter, and show that Fourier modes decay exponentially with the wave number. We also obtain the order parameter in terms of the diffusion constant. This solution is obtained using iterated partitions of the integer numbers.

© 2006 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.73.031109
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevE.73.031109
PACS:
05.20.Dd, 05.45.Xt, 81.05.Rm, 87.15.Aa