Random walk in a two-dimensional self-affine random potential : properties of the anomalous diffusion phase at small external force

We consider the random walk of a particle in a two-dimensional self-affine random potential of Hurst exponent $H=1/2$ in the presence of an external force $F$. We present numerical results on the statistics of first-passage times that satisfy closed backward master equations. We find that there exists a zero-velocity phase in a finite region of the external force $0<F<F_c$, where the dynamics follows the anomalous diffusion law $x(t) \sim ξ(F) \ t^{μ(F)}$. The anomalous exponent $0<μ(F)<1$ and the correlation length $ξ(F)$ vary continuously with $F$. In the limit of vanishing force $F \to 0$, we measure the following power-laws : the anomalous exponent vanishes as $μ(F) \propto F^a$ with $a \simeq 0.6$ (instead of $a=1$ in dimension $d=1$), and the correlation length diverges as $ξ(F) \propto F^{-ν}$ with $ν\simeq 1.29$ (instead of $ν=2$ in dimension $d=1$). Our main conclusion is thus that the dynamics renormalizes onto an effective directed trap model, where the traps are characterized by a typical length $ξ(F)$ along the direction of the force, and by a typical barrier $1/μ(F)$. The fact that these traps are 'smaller' in linear size and in depth than in dimension $d=1$, means that the particle uses the transverse direction to find lower barriers.

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