Some fundamental aspects of Lévy flights

Ralf Metzler*, Aleksei V. Chechkin, Vsevolod Yu Gonchar, Joseph Klafter

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

52 Scopus citations

Abstract

We investigate the physical basis and properties of Lévy flights (LFs), Markovian random walks with a long-tailed density of jump lengths, λ (ξ) ∼ | ξ |- 1 - α, with 0 < α < 2. In particular, we show that non-trivial boundary conditions need to be carefully posed, and that the method of images fails due to the non-locality of LFs. We discuss the behaviour of LFs in external potentials, demonstrating the existence of multimodal solutions whose maxima do not coincide with the potential minimum. The Kramers escape of LFs is investigated, and the physical nature of the a priori diverging kinetic energy of an LF is addressed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)129-142
Number of pages14
JournalChaos, Solitons and Fractals
Volume34
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2007

Funding

FundersFunder number
Government of Canada
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Canada Research Chairs

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