Advection of passive particles over flow networks

Abstract

The problem of stochastic advection of passive particles by circulating conserved flows on networks is formulated and investigated. The particles undergo transitions between the nodes with the transition rates determined by the flows passing through the links. Such stochastic advection processes lead to mixing of particles in the network and, in the final equilibrium state, concentration of particles in all nodes become equal. As we find, equilibration begins in the subset of nodes, representing flow hubs, and extends to the periphery nodes with weak flows. This behavior is related to the effect of localization of the eigenvectors of the advection matrix for considered networks. Applications of the results to problems involving spreading of infections or pollutants by traffic networks are discussed.