Random Walk on a Rough Surface: Renormalization Group Analysis of a Simple Model

Abstract

The field theoretic renormalization group is applied to a simple model of random walk on a rough fluctuating surface. We consider the Fokker--Planck equation for a particle in a uniform gravitational field. The surface is modelled by the generalized Edwards--Wilkinson linear stochastic equation for the height field. The full stochastic model is reformulated as a multiplicatively renormalizable field theory, which allows for application of the standard renormalization theory. The renormalization group equations have several fixed points that correspond to possible scaling regimes in the infrared range (long times, large distances); all the critical dimensions are found exactly. As an example, the spreading law for particle's cloud is derived. It has the form $R^2(t)\simeq t^{2/Δ_ω}$ with the exactly known critical dimension of frequency $Δ_ω$ and, in general, differs from the standard expression $R^2(t)\simeq t$ for ordinary random walk.