DIFFUSION IN LORENTZ LATTICE GAS AUTOMATA WITH BACKSCATTERING

The probability of first return to the initial interval x and the diffusion tensor D(alphabeta) are calculated exactly for a ballistic Lorentz gas on a Bethe lattice or Cayley tree. It consists of a moving particle and a fixed array of scatterers, located at the nodes, and the lengths of the intervals between scatterers are determined by a geometric distribution. The same values for x and D(alphabeta) apply also to a regular space lattice with a fraction rho of sites occupied by a scatterer in the limit of a small concentration of scatterers. If backscattering occurs, the results are very different from the Boltzmann approximation. The theory is applied to different types of lattices and different types of scatterers having rotational or mirror symmetries.