Abstract

Inspired by one-dimensional light-particle systems, the dynamics of a non-Hamiltonian system with long-range forces is investigated. While the molecular dynamics does not reach an equilibrium state, it may be approximated in the thermodynamic limit by a Vlasov equation that does possess stable stationary solutions. This implies that on a macroscopic scale the molecular dynamics evolves on a slow timescale that diverges with the system size. At the single-particle level, the evolution is driven by incoherent interaction between the particles, which may be effectively modeled by a noise, leading to a Brownian-like dynamics of the momentum. Because this self-generated diffusion process depends on the particle distribution, the associated Fokker-Planck equation is nonlinear, and a subdiffusive behavior of the momentum fluctuations emerges, in agreement with numerics.