Related papers: Metastable phases and "metastable" phase diagrams
We estimate numerically the normal modes of the free energy in a glass of hard discs. We observe that, near the glass transition or after a rapid quench deep in the glass phase, the density of states (i) is characteristic of a marginally…
Hydrogen exhibits unusual behaviors at megabar pressures, with consequences for planetary science, condensed matter physics and materials science. Experiments at such extreme conditions are challenging, often resulting in hard-to-interpret…
We study boundary induced phase transitions in a driven lattice gas exhibiting metastability. The phase diagram for open systems, parameterized by the input and output rates, consists of two regions corresponding to the free flow and jammed…
Structural behavior and equation of state of atomic and molecular crystal phases of dense hydrogen at pressures up to 3.5 TPa are systematically investigated with density functional theory. The results indicate that the Vinet EOS model that…
Protein folding is analyzed using a replica variational formalism to investigate some free energy landscape characteristics relevant for dynamics. A random contact interaction model that satisfies the minimum frustration principle is used…
The influence of different chemical potential for different flavors on color superconductivity is analyzed. It is found that there is a first order transition as the asymmetry grows. This transition proceeds through the formation of bubbles…
Various phase transitions in models for coupled charge-density waves are investigated by means of the $\epsilon$-expansion, mean-field theory, and Monte Carlo simulations. At zero temperature the effective action for the system with…
We investigate a reversible polymerization process in which individual polymers aggregate and fragment at a rate proportional to their molecular weight. We find a nonequilibrium phase transition despite the fact that the dynamics are…
Multistability is an inseparable feature of many physical, chemical and biological systems which are driven far from equilibrium. In these nonequilibrium systems, stochastic dynamics often induces switching between distinct states on…
In systems characterized by a rough potential energy landscape, local energetic minima and saddles define a network of metastable states whose topology strongly influences the dynamics. Changes in temperature, causing the merging and…
In the weakly non-ideal gas model [1], the Bose-Einstein condensation at constant pressure is considered. The temperature of transition to the state with condensate is found. Temperature dependences of the total density and condensate…
We use computer simulations to study the glass transition of dense fluids made of polydisperse, repulsive spheres. For hard particles, we vary the volume fraction, phi, and use compressible particles to explore finite temperatures, T>0. In…
A system of a metastable phase with several sorts of the heterogeneous centers is considered. An analytical theory for the process of condensation in such a system is constructed in dynamic conditions. The free energy of formation of the…
We consider polynomial long-range Ising models in one dimension, with ferromagnetic pair interactions decaying with power $2-\alpha$ (for $0 \leq \alpha < 1$), and prepared with randomly chosen boundary conditions. We show that at low…
This thesis sums up the research work I performed as a PhD student in Sapienza Universit\`a di Roma, and \'Ecole Normale Sup\'erieure, Paris, under the joint supervision of Prof. Giorgio Parisi and Dr. Francesco Zamponi. The thesis focuses…
In the limit of a large number of colors (N), both Yang-Mills and quantum chromodynamics are expected to have a first-order phase transition separating a confined hadronic phase and a deconfined plasma phase. One aspect of this separation…
The interplay of slow dynamics and thermodynamic features of dense liquids is studied by examinining how the glass transition changes depending on the presence or absence of Lennard-Jones-like attractions. Quite different thermodynamic…
In many mean-field glassy systems, the low-temperature Gibbs measure is dominated by exponentially many metastable states. We analyze the evolution of the metastable states as temperature changes adiabatically in the solvable case of the…
The glass transition can simply be viewed as the point at which the viscosity of a structurally disordered liquid reaches 10^{13} Poise [1]. This definition is operational but it sidesteps fundamental controversies about the glass: Is the…
The barriers between metastable states near the glass transition of a random heteropolymer are studied using replicas by describing inhomogeneous states. The instanton solution for a replica space free energy functional is found numerically…