Distributions of the Diffusion Coefficient for the Quantum and Classical Diffusion in Disordered Media

Abstract

It is shown that the distribution functions of the diffusion coefficient are very similar in the standard model of quantum diffusion in a disordered metal and in a model of classical diffusion in a disordered medium: in both cases the distribution functions have lognormal tails, their part increasing with the increase of the disorder. The similarity is based on a similar behaviour of the high-gradient operators determining the high-order cumulants. The one-loop renormalization-group corrections make the anomalous dimension of the operator that governs the $s$-th cumulant proportional to $s(s-1)$ thus overtaking for large $s$ the negative normal dimension. As behaviour of the ensemble-averaged diffusion coefficient is quite different in these models, it suggests that a possible universality in the distribution functions is independent of the behaviour of average quantities.