Cooperative transport with selective kinetic constraints

Abstract

We introduce and study a family of cooperative exclusion processes whose microscopic dynamics is governed by selective kinetic constraints. They display, in sharp contrast to the simple symmetric exclusion process, density profiles that can be concave, convex or both, depending on the density of boundary particle reservoirs. A mean-field analysis based on a diffusion equation with a density-dependent diffusion coefficient qualitatively reproduces this behaviour, and suggests its occurrence in liquids with a diffusivity anomaly.