Thermal effects on overdamped systems of repulsive particles

Abstract

Physical systems comprised of repulsive particles in dissipative media are ubiquitous. The dynamics of the local concentration of repulsive particles can be modeled by a nonlinear diffusion-like equation. To construct these coarse-grained models, it is necessary to determine, based on the local concentration and gradient, the expected force over the dispersed particles. In this work, we consider how the parametrization of the coarse-grained model can be obtained simply by investigating the properties of the steady state of systems presenting a constant concentration profile. We do this through Monte Carlo simulations for these homogeneous states at given temperatures. We use results from molecular dynamics numerical simulations to successfully test the predictions of our continuum model.