Related papers: Metastabilities across disorder-broadened first-or…
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…
When liquid-crystalline elastomers pass through the isotropic-nematic transition, the orientational order parameter and the elastic strain vary rapidly but smoothly, without the expected first-order discontinuity. This broadening of the…
The microscopic model in which nodes interacting with each other are statistical systems is introduced. The nodes conditions are connected with a string of distinct microscopic configurations and depend on external parameters (pressure and…
Onset and loss of synchronization in coupled oscillators are of fundamental importance in understanding emergent behavior in natural and man-made systems, which range from neural networks to power grids. We report on experiments with…
First order transition of vortex lattices (VL) observed in various superconductors with four-fold symmetry is explained microscopically by quasi-classical Eilenberger theory combined with nonlocal London theory. This transition is intrinsic…
Compact stars above a critical stellar mass develop large scalar fields in some scalar-tensor theories. This scenario, called spontaneous scalarization, has been an intense topic of study since it passes weak-field gravity tests naturally…
The effects of locally random magnetic fields are considered in a nonequilibrium Ising model defined on a square lattice with nearest-neighbors interactions. In order to generate the random magnetic fields, we have considered random…
The existence and limits of metastable droplets have been calculated using finite-system renormalization-group theory, for q-state Potts models in spatial dimension d=3. The dependence of the droplet critical sizes on magnetic field,…
We present experimental evidence for a first-order freezing/melting phase transition in a nonequilibrium system -- an oscillated two-dimensional isobaric granular fluid. The steady-state transition occurs between a gas and a crystal and is…
We describe ferroelectric thin films with circular electrodes and develop a thermodynamic theory that explains previously mysterious experiments. It is found to be especially useful for restricted geometries such as microstructures for…
We study the effect of quenched disorder in the thermodynamic magnitudes entailed in the first-order vortex phase transition of the extremely layered Bi$_{2}$Sr$_{2}$CaCu$_{2}$O$_{8 + \delta}$ compound. We track the temperature-evolution of…
This paper looks at the early theory of phase transitions. It considers a group of related concepts derived from condensed matter and statistical physics. The key technical ideas here go under the names of "singularity", "order parameter",…
First-order phase transitions occur through the nucleation of critical bubbles of the stable phase within the metastable phase. Using holography, we present a fully microscopic description of these bubbles in a strongly coupled,…
We consider disorder-order phase transitions in the three-dimensional version of the scalar noise model (SNM) of flocking. Our results are analogous to those found for the two-dimensional case. For small velocity (v <= 0.1) a continuous,…
Transport studies in a Corbino disk geometry suggest that the Bragg glass phase undergoes a first-order transition into a disordered solid. This transition shows a sharp reentrant behavior at low fields. In contrast, in the conventional…
In this work we consider the phase transition from ordered to disordered states that occur in the Vicsek model of self-propelled particles. This model was proposed to describe the emergence of collective order in swarming systems. When…
The persistence of the first-order transition line in the phase diagram of mesoscopic Bi$_{2}$Sr$_{2}$CaCu$_{2}$O$_{8}$ vortex matter is detected down to a system size of less than hundred vortices. Precise and highly-sensitive to bulk…
We introduce a family of two-dimensional lattice models of quasicrystals, using a range of square hard cores together with a soft interaction based on an aperiodic tiling set. Along a low temperature isotherm we find, by Monte Carlo…
The phase transition in the q-state Potts model with homogeneous ferromagnetic couplings is strongly first order for large q, while is rounded in the presence of quenched disorder. Here we study this phenomenon on different two-dimensional…
Within the framework of Lorentz model for description of viscoelastic medium the influence of deformational defect of the shear modulus is studied on melting of ultrathin lubricant film confined between the atomically flat solid surfaces.…