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Lab VII: Random Systems and Random Walk (In Two Dimensions)

This document describes a random walk simulation in two dimensions. It provides a function, random_walk_2d_single, that performs a single random walk and returns the x and y coordinates. If requested, it will also plot the walk as it occurs. The key parts of the function are that it uses rand_disc to generate random x and y steps, calculates cumulative sums to determine plot dimensions, and optionally plots each step in a loop to visualize the walk developing over time.

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56 views

Lab VII: Random Systems and Random Walk (In Two Dimensions)

This document describes a random walk simulation in two dimensions. It provides a function, random_walk_2d_single, that performs a single random walk and returns the x and y coordinates. If requested, it will also plot the walk as it occurs. The key parts of the function are that it uses rand_disc to generate random x and y steps, calculates cumulative sums to determine plot dimensions, and optionally plots each step in a loop to visualize the walk developing over time.

Uploaded by

setyawarno
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lab VII : Random systems and random walk (in two dimensions)

Example 1 : Random walk in two dimensions with discrete steps


In the lecture, we saw how we can write a one dimensional random walk with a fixed step size of 1. In this exercise
we are going to extend this to two dimensions. Just like we have done in the lecture, we are going to run the code for
different numbers of step sizes and calculate the mean square displacement over a large set of random walks.
First let’s write a function that outputs a single random walk. Because we are now in two dimensions, we need
an x and a y coordinate of each displacement. So we’ll have our function return two arrays, one for each coordinate.
It would also be nice to see the particle execute the random walk, however because we are going to be calling this
function several times, it’s a good idea to make the plotting optional. Otherwise it would become terribly annoying.
Let’s give our function a rather lengthy but self-explanatory name and call it random walk 2d single.
Before you create the file random walk 2d single.m, download rand disc.m from the Web because we going to be
using this in our code.

## Produce a single random walk in two dimensions


## Usage : [x,y]=random_walk_single(Nsteps,plot_or_not)

function [x,y]=random_walk_single(Nsteps,plot_or_not)

x=rand_disc(Nsteps,0.5);
y=rand_disc(Nsteps,0.5);

if ( strcmp(plot_or_not,"yes") )
cumx=cumsum(x);
cumy=cumsum(y);

axis([min(cumx),max(cumx),min(cumy),max(cumy)]);
for n=1:length(cumx)
plot(cumx(1:n),cumy(1:n),’b-*’);
pause(0.1)
endfor

elseif ( strcmp(cplot,"no") )
continue
else
printf("Wrong plot option. Available options are : yes and no.\n");
endif

endfunction

What this function really does is executed on the first two lines where the random walk is generated, however, it
performs a lot of additional tasks before returning the output. Let’s examine the highlighted parts of the code :
• The argument plot or not is a string that accepts two values yes and no. String arguments cannot simply be
compared using the == but a specialized string function, strcmp must be called.
• If a plot has been asked for, we first find the cumulative sum of all the steps using cumsum. This will help us to
figure out the dimensions of the plot, which we set using the axis command.
• We then loop over n, creating a plot of the first n points at each step. This produces a plot which really looks
like the time evolution of a random walk with connected steps.
• If no plot has been asked for the code does nothing but just continues.
• If any option has been entered other than yes or no, then the code prints an error sign.

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