Langevin function, definition

That the terminal acceleration should most likely vanish is true almost by definition of the steady state the system returns to equilibrium with a constant velocity that is proportional to the initial displacement, and hence the acceleration must be zero. It is stressed that this result only holds in the intermediate regime, for x not too large. Hence and in particular, this constant velocity (linear decrease in displacement with time) is not inconsistent with the exponential return to equilibrium that is conventionally predicted by the Langevin equation, since the present analysis cannot be extrapolated directly beyond the small time regime where the exponential can be approximated by a linear function. 

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