Tracer diffusivity in a time or space dependent temperature field

Abstract

The conventional assumption that the self-diffusion coefficient of a small tracer can be obtained by a local and instantaneous application of Einstein's relation in a temperature field with spatial and temporal heterogeneity is revisited. It is shown that hydrodynamic fluctuations contribute to the self-diffusion tensor in a universal way, i.e. independent of the size and shape of the tracer. The hydrodynamic contribution is anisotropic--it reflects knowledge of the global anisotropy in the temperature profile, leading to anisotropic self-diffusion tensor for a spherical tracer. It is also retarded--it creates memory effects during the diffusion process due to hydrodynamic interactions.