Diffusion Under Confinement: A Journey Through Counterintuition

This book offers the reader a journey through the counterintuitive nature of Brownian motion under confinement. Diffusion is a universal phenomenon that controls a wide range of physical, chemical, and biological processes. The transport of spatially-constrained molecules and small particles is ubiquitous in nature and technology and plays an essential role in different processes. Understanding the physics of diffusion under conditions of confinement is essential for a number of biological phenomena and potential technological applications in micro- and nanofluidics, among others.

Studies on diffusion under confinement are typically difficult to understand for young scientists and students because of the extensive background on diffusion processes, physics, and mathematics that is required. All of this information is provided in this book, which is essentially self-contained as a result of the authors’ efforts to make it accessible to an audience of students from avariety of different backgrounds. The book also provides the necessary mathematical details so students can follow the technical process required to solve each problem. Readers will also find detailed explanations of the main results based on the last 30 years of research devoted to studying diffusion under confinement. The authors approach the physical problem from various angles and discuss the role of geometries and boundary conditions in diffusion.

This textbook serves as a comprehensive and modern overview of Brownian motion under confinement and is intended for young scientists, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates in physics, physical chemistry, biology, chemistry, chemical engineering, biochemistry, bioengineering, and polymer and material sciences.

Dr. Leonardo Dagdug is a full professor in the Department of Physics at the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM) in Mexico City, Mexico, where he teaches and researches in the fields of statistical physics, diffusion in confined systems, biophysics, diffusion with stochastic resetting, virus growth and Form, for about 30 years. He obtained his Ph.D. in physics from UAM in 1999 after which he conducted his postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Health. He is associate editor of the Journals Frontiers in Physics, Frontiers in Physiology, and Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences. In 2021, he was elected to membership in the Mexican National Academy of Sciences. He is a recipient of the Excellence in Educational Practice award, by the Universidad Simón Bolívar, México. Professor Dagdug currently serves as an invited scientist at the National Institute of Health in the Section of Molecular Transport.
Jason Peña received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Physics from the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM) in Mexico City, where he currently serves as an Assistant Professor in the Physics Department. While an important part of his research centers on the study of diffusion, trapping and absorption processes, and their chemical and biological applications, he is also actively engaged in theoretical biophysics and physical virology. Notably, beyond his scientific pursuits, he finds a keen interest in the realms of structural biology and statistical mechanics.
Ivan Pompa-García received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Physics from the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM) in Mexico City, Mexico, where he also served as Assistant Professor. His research focuses on confined diffusion systems, which includes theory and simulations. The computational approach is backed up with his more than 15 years of experience as an IT professional. As a current Ph.D. candidate, his interests also include Molecular Dynamics, Brownian Dynamics Simulations, Computational Physics and Stochastic Processes.