Can chaos drive diffusion at extremely low temperatures? This research uses numerical simulation to investigate the nonlinear one-dimensional dynamics of diatomic adatom clusters on atomically grooved crystal surfaces. The study reveals that when the system's dynamic Hamiltonian exhibits chaotic behavior in phase space, this chaos manifests in coordinate space as diffusive motion of the cluster. Focusing on **physics** and **mathematical modeling**, the process investigated is fundamentally different from ordinary thermal diffusion, and appears to be manifested at low temperatures. The investigation focuses on adatom clusters, which can also help with designing new components. These findings offer a novel perspective on surface dynamics and suggest new avenues for exploring and manipulating materials at the atomic level. Future studies could explore the implications of this phenomenon for various materials science applications and nanoscale devices.
Published in _Low Temperature Physics_, this article is relevant to the journal's focus on phenomena and properties of matter at extremely low temperatures. The exploration of dynamical chaos as a driver of surface diffusion aligns with the journal's coverage of unconventional transport mechanisms at the quantum level.