English

Cusp singularities in boundary-driven diffusive systems

Statistical Mechanics 2015-10-07 v1

Abstract

Boundary driven diffusive systems describe a broad range of transport phenomena. We study large deviations of the density profile in these systems, using numerical and analytical methods. We find that the large deviation may be non-differentiable, a phenomenon that is unique to non-equilibrium systems, and discuss the types of models which display such singularities.\ The structure of these singularities is found to generically be a cusp, which can be described by a Landau free energy or, equivalently, by catastrophe theory. Connections with analogous results in systems with finite-dimensional phase spaces are drawn.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1301.1708,
  title  = {Cusp singularities in boundary-driven diffusive systems},
  author = {Guy Bunin and Yariv Kafri and Daniel Podolsky},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1301.1708},
  year   = {2015}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T23:06:17.555Z