Correlated random walk and noise suppression in detecting electric fields

Abstract

Detecting a weak electric field in a strong noisy background is always an interesting but hard task. We investigate the collective effects of charged Brownian particles in the presence of a weak electric field together with a strong noisy background field by numerical simulation. We show that the pattern formed by snapshots touched by the Brownian particles on one boundary surface can manifest the direction of an applied weak electric field but will be spoiled if there exists a strong noisy background. Moreover, we find that the influence of noise can be suppressed effectively if the correlations caused by the inter-particle electric interaction are taken into account. This work is expected to provide a new angle of view: correlated random walk plays a constructive role in noise suppression.