Savitribai Phule Pune University

Department of Physics
Internal Examination - I : March 6, 2021

Special Topics in Theoretical Physics(STTP)

Date: March 6, 2021 Time: 2.00 - 3.30 pm Maximum Points: 35

•Q1 and Q2 are compulsory. •Answer any one among Q3 and Q4.
•Symbols/notation not defined in questions have the usual meanings.
•While answering, explanations for mathematical steps must be provided.
•Marks for each question is indicated near the right margin.

•Submit your answers for ALL Questions together, as a SINGLE PDF FILE.

Q1 Consider a TASEP process on a ring geometry (with Periodic boundary conditions), with Next
Nearest Neighbour interaction, such that a particle at site i hops to site i + 1 with rate δ
only if site i + 1 is unoccupied and site i + 2 is also unoccupied. Further if i + 2 is also occupied
and site i + 1 is unoccupied, then the particle at site i hops to site i + 1 with rate γ. There are
a total N lattice sites, labeled from i = 1 to i = N and the total number of particle is M , and
the lattice spacing is .

(a) Set up the equations of motion in terms of number operators n̂i for the process

(b) Find the corresponding Mean Field (MF) Continuum evolution equations in terms of average
density of particles ρ(x).

(c) Find the corresponding MF expression of steady state average density and current in terms
of δ, γ, M and N . Is the steady state density and current profile homogeneous?

(d) Under what conditions, this process reduces to results of usual TASEP and why ? (12)

Q2 Consider a symmetric Dichotomous Markov process(SDMP), for which a discrete random vari-
able X(t) can take only two values, b (in state 1) and −b (in state 2) and switches back and
forth between these two states with a mean transition rate ω which is same for the forward and
reverse transition process.

(a) Set up the Master equation to describe this process and show that the Master equation for
this process may be expressed in the form,

dP
= S̃P
dt

where P is a column vector and S̃ is square matrix

1
 (b) Find the stationary state probability for state 1 and state 2 respectively.

(c) Find the matrix eS̃t for this process.

(d) Find the conditional probability of finding the system in state 1 at time t given that the
system was in state 2 at t = 0.

(e) Find h X 2 i and h X(t)X(0) i for this process

(15)

Q3 The 1d Langevin Equation for a Brownian Particle has the form,

dv
m = −mγv + η(t)
dt

where, γ is the friction constant and η(t) is random force, with η(t) = 0 and η(t)η(t1 ) = Γδ(t−t1 ),
where averaging is over different realizations of the random force. At t = 0, v = vo .

(a) Find v and hvi. Explain ( in 2 sentences) the difference between these two different averaging
procedure.

(b)Obtain the Fluctuation dissipation relation for this process.

(8)

Q4 Consider a 1-d Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process for which the corresponding Fokker-Planck equation
satisfied by the probability density function P (x, t) has the form,

∂P ∂ ∂2P
= a (xP ) + b 2
∂t ∂x ∂ x

If at t = 0, P (x, 0) = δ(x − xo ),

(a) Obtain the time evolution equation for hx(t)i and hx2 (t)i for this process.

(b) Solve the evolution equation obtained in (a) to find hx(t)i and hx2 (t)i. Find the correspond-
ing steady state values of hxi and hx2 i.
(8)