Stochastic motion under nonlinear friction representing shear thinning

Abstract: We study stochastic motion under a nonlinear frictional force that levels off with increasing velocity. Specifically, our frictional force is of the so-called Coulomb-tanh type. At small speed, it increases approximately linearly with velocity, while at large speed it approaches a constant magnitude, similarly to solid (dry, Coulomb) friction. In one spatial dimension, a formal analogy between the associated Fokker-Planck equation and the Schr\"odinger equation for a quantum-mechanical oscillator in a nonharmonic P\"oschl-Teller potential is revealed. Then, the stationary velocity statistics can be treated analytically. From such analytical considerations, we determine associated diffusion coefficients, which we confirm by agent-based simulations. Moreover, from such simulations and from numerically solving the associated Fokker-Planck equation, we find that the spatial distribution function, starting from an initial Gaussian shape, develops tails that appear exponential at intermediate time scales. At small magnitudes of stochastic driving, the velocity distribution resembles the case of linear friction, while at large magnitudes it rather approaches the case of solid (dry, Coulomb) friction. The same is true for diffusion coefficients. In a certain sense, thus interpolating between the two extreme cases of linear friction and solid (dry, Coulomb) friction, our approach should be useful to describe several cases of practical relevance. For instance, a reduced increase in friction with increasing relative speed is typical of shear-thinning behavior. Therefore, driven motion in shear-thinning environments is one specific example to which our description may be applied.