Investigation of a chaotic thermostat

A numerical study is presented of a free particle interacting with a deterministic thermostat in which the usual friction force is supplemented with a fluctuating force that depends on the self-consistent damping coefficient associated with coupling to the heat bath. It is found that this addition results in a chaotic environment in which a particle self-heats from rest and moves in positive and negative directions, exhibiting a characteristic diffusive behavior. The frequency power spectrum of the dynamical quantities displays the exponential frequency dependence ubiquitous to chaotic dynamics. The velocity distribution function approximates a Maxwellian distribution, but it does show departures from perfect thermal equilibrium, while the distribution function for the damping coefficient shows a closer fit. The behavior for the classic Nosé-Hoover (NH) thermostat is compared to that of the enlarged Martyna-Klein-Tuckerman (MKT) model. Over a narrow amplitude range, the application of a constant external force results quantitatively in the Einstein relation for the NH thermostat, and for the MKT model it differs by a factor of 2.