Emergent behaviour in electrodiffusion: Planck's other quanta (Q2450212)

The authors consider a simple continuum model of steady electrodiffusion, governed by coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The governing system of ordinary differential equations is \[ c'_+(x)=(ze/k_BT)E(x)c_+(x)-\Phi_+/D_+, \] \[ c'_-(x)=-(ze/k_BT)E(x)c_-(x)-\Phi_+/D_-, \] \[ E'(x)=(4\pi ze/\epsilon)[c_+(x)-c_-(x)] \] for \(0<x<\delta\). \(\Phi_+,\Phi_-\) denote the steady flux densities in the \((+x)\)-direction of the two species, \(D_+,D_-\) their diffusion coefficients, and \(z\) their common valence, while \(E(x)\) denotes the induced electric field, \(k_B\) Boltzmann's constant, \(e\) the electronic charge, \(\epsilon\) the electric permittivity, and \(T\) the ambient absolute temperature within the solution in the junction. In a typical boundary value problem for this system, five unknowns, comprising the concentrations \(c_+(x),c_-(x)\), the electric field \(E(x)\), and the constant flux-densities \(\Phi_+\) and \(\Phi_-\), are to be determined from four appropriate boundary conditions and a prescribed value for the electric current density \(J\) \[ J=J_++J_-,\qquad J_{\pm}=\pm ze\Phi_{\pm} . \] This model assumes ionic concentrations sufficiently large so that they can be described by functions that vary continuously across the liquid junction. According to the concluding remarks of authors, the underlying discreteness of the electric charges on individual ions provides an interpretation of the quantization of the electric current densities associated with exact rational solutions related by Bäcklund transformations, and the nonlinearity of this classical model is crucial for this remarkable effect to occur.