Normal and anomalous diffusion in a bouncing ball over an irregular surface.

Boscolo, Ana Laura; Junior, Valdir Barbosa da Silva; Barreiro, Luiz Antonio · Phys Rev E · 2023

basic_science · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

The problem of a bouncing ball on a nonplanar surface is investigated. We discovered that surface undulation adds a horizontal component to the impact force, which acquires a random character. Some aspects of Brownian motion are found in the horizontal distribution of the particle. On the x axis, normal and superdiffusion are observed. For the probability density's functional form, a scaling hypothesis is presented.