Einstein relation for random walks in random environments (Q2387450)

The authors are concerned with a tracer particle performing a continuous time nearest neighbor random walk on \(\mathbb{Z}^{d}\) in dimension \(d\geq 3\) with random jump rates admitting only two values \(0<\gamma _{-}<\gamma _{+}<\infty \). This kind of a walk models the motion of a charged particle under a constant external electric field while \(\gamma _{-}\) and \(\gamma _{+} \) represent the lower and upper conductivities. The mobility coefficient \( \sigma \) of the particle is defined as follows. Suppose that the particle is electrically charged and an exterior uniform electric field \(\mathbb{E}=E \mathbb{I}\) is applied in a given direction \(\mathbb{I}\), a unit vector in \( \mathbb{R}^{d}.\) In the corresponding stationary state, the particle will have a mean velocity \(\nu \left( E\right) \). Then \(\sigma =\lim_{E\rightarrow 0_{+}}\nu \left( E\right) /E.\) The Einstein relation, established in 1905, is \(\sigma =\left( k_{B}T\right) ^{-1}{\mathbb D\mathbb I,}\) where \(T\) is the fluid temperature, \(k_{B}\) the Boltzmann constant, and \( \mathbb{D}\) is a matrix defining the diffusivity of the particle. The authors prove in the context considered the existence of \(\sigma \) and establish the Einstein relation.