Related papers: Spontaneous second order phase transition. Amorpho…
First-order irreversible phase transitions (IPT's) between an active regime and an absorbing state are studied in two models by means of both simulations and mean-field stability analysis. Hysteresis around coexistence is the result of the…
We introduce a phenomenological theory for a new class of soft active fluids, with the ability to synchronise. Our theoretical framework describes the macroscopic behaviour of a collection of interacting anisotropic elements with cyclic…
Symmetry provides important insight in understanding the nature of phase transitions. In the presence of crystalline symmetries, new phenomena in phase transition can emerge, such as intertwined orders and emergent symmetries. In this work,…
Self-buckling is an interesting phenomenon that is easily found around us, either in nature or in objects made by human. Palm fronds which initially directed upward when they were short and turned into bending after appreciably longer is an…
Nonequilibrium thermodynamics of a general second-order stochastic system is investigated. We prove that at steady state, under inversion of velocities, the condition of time-reversibility over the phase space is equivalent to the…
Metastability is a quintessential feature of first order quantum phase transitions, which is lost either by dynamical instability or by nucleating bubbles of a true vacuum through quantum tunneling. By considering a drive across the first…
The properties of materials near structural phase transitions are often successfully described in the framework of Landau theory. While the focus is usually on phase transitions, which are induced by temperature changes approaching a…
Homogeneous nucleation of a new phase near a second, continuous, transition, is considered. The continuous transition is in the metastable region associated with the first-order phase transition, one of whose coexisting phases is…
We consider an off-lattice liquid crystal pair potential in strictly two dimensions. The potential is purely repulsive and short-ranged. Nevertheless, by means of a single parameter in the potential, the system is shown to undergo a…
Despite the importance of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, it is not absolute. Statistical mechanics implies that, given sufficient time, systems near equilibrium will spontaneously fluctuate into lower-entropy states, locally reversing…
The theory of second order phase transitions is one of the foundations of modern statistical mechanics and condensed matter theory. A central concept is the observable `order parameter', whose non-zero average value characterizes one or…
Inspired by the swarming or flocking of animal systems we study groups of agents moving in unbounded 2D space. Individual trajectories derive from a ``bottom-up'' principle: individuals reorient to maximise their future path entropy over…
Experimental evidence for the existence of strictly higher-order phase transitions (of order three or above in the Ehrenfest sense) is tenuous at best. However, there is no known physical reason why such transitions should not exist in…
The study of dynamical large deviations allows for a characterization of stationary states of lattice gas models out of equilibrium conditioned on averages of dynamical observables. The application of this framework to the two-dimensional…
In a real system the heating is nonuniform and a second-order phase transition into a broken symmetry phase occurs by propagation of the temperature front. Two parameters, the cooling rate $\tau_Q$ and the velocity $v_T$ of the transition…
Newton's second law has limited scope of application when transient phenomena are present. We consider a modification of Newton's second law in order to take into account a sudden change (surge) of angular momentum or linear momentum. We…
We use a free-energy minimization approach to describe the secular and dynamical instabilities as well as the bifurcations along equilibrium sequences of rotating, self-gravitating fluid systems. Our approach is fully nonlinear and stems…
We consider the 3-dimensional massive Gross-Neveu model at finite temperature as an effective theory for strong interactions. Using the Matsubara imaginary time formalism, we derive a closed form for the renormalized $T$-dependent…
A heuristic generalization of the Boltzmann-Gibbs microcanonical entropy is proposed, able to describe meta-equilibrium features and evolution of macroscopic systems. Despite its simple-minded derivation, such a function of "collective…
The optimal (`equilibrium') macroscopic properties of an economy with $N$ industries endowed with different technologies, $P$ commodities and one consumer are derived in the limit $N\to\infty$ with $n=N/P$ fixed using the replica method.…