English

Fluctuation relations for equilibrium states with broken discrete or continuous symmetries

Statistical Mechanics 2016-12-14 v1 Soft Condensed Matter

Abstract

Isometric fluctuation relations are deduced for the fluctuations of the order parameter in equilibrium systems of condensed-matter physics with broken discrete or continuous symmetries. These relations are similar to their analogues obtained for non-equilibrium systems where the broken symmetry is time reversal. At equilibrium, these relations show that the ratio of the probabilities of opposite fluctuations goes exponentially with the symmetry-breaking external field and the magnitude of the fluctuations. These relations are applied to the Curie-Weiss, Heisenberg, and XYXY~models of magnetism where the continuous rotational symmetry is broken, as well as to the qq-state Potts model and the pp-state clock model where discrete symmetries are broken. Broken symmetries are also considered in the anisotropic Curie-Weiss model. For infinite systems, the results are calculated using large-deviation theory. The relations are also applied to mean-field models of nematic liquid crystals where the order parameter is tensorial. Moreover, their extension to quantum systems is also deduced.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1510.02304,
  title  = {Fluctuation relations for equilibrium states with broken discrete or continuous symmetries},
  author = {David Lacoste and Pierre Gaspard},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1510.02304},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

34 pages, 14 figures