Search results for "Statistical physics"

Effective Cahn-Hilliard Equation for the Phase Separation of Active Brownian Particles

2014

The kinetic separation of repulsive active Brownian particles into a dense and a dilute phase is analyzed using a systematic coarse-graining strategy. We derive an effective Cahn-Hilliard equation on large length and time scales, which implies that the separation process can be mapped onto that of passive particles. A lower density threshold for clustering is found, and using our approach we demonstrate that clustering first proceeds via a hysteretic nucleation scenario and above a higher threshold changes into a spinodal-like instability. Our results are in agreement with particle-resolved computer simulations and can be verified in experiments of artificial or biological microswimmers.

Crystallization of hard spheres revisited. I. Extracting kinetics and free energy landscape from forward flux sampling

2018

We investigate the kinetics and the free energy landscape of the crystallization of hard spheres from a supersaturated metastable liquid though direct simulations and forward flux sampling. In this first paper, we describe and test two different ways to reconstruct the free energy barriers from the sampled steady state probability distribution of cluster sizes without sampling the equilibrium distribution. The first method is based on mean first passage times, and the second method is based on splitting probabilities. We verify both methods for a single particle moving in a double-well potential. For the nucleation of hard spheres, these methods allow us to probe a wide range of supersatura…

Kinetic Roughening in Slow Combustion of Paper

2001

Results of experiments on the dynamics and kinetic roughening of one-dimensional slow-combustion fronts in three grades of paper are reported. Extensive averaging of the data allows a detailed analysis of the spatial and temporal development of the interface fluctuations. The asymptotic scaling properties, on long length and time scales, are well described by the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation with short-range, uncorrelated noise. To obtain a more detailed picture of the strong-coupling fixed point, characteristic of the KPZ universality class, universal amplitude ratios, and the universal coupling constant are computed from the data and found to be in good agreement with theory. Below …

Quantitative tests of mode-coupling theory for fragile and strong glass-formers

2001

We calculate for a binary mixture of Lennard-Jones particles the time dependence of the solution of the mode-coupling equations in which the full wave vector dependence is taken into account. In addition we also take into account the short time dynamics, which we model with a simple memory kernel. We find that the so obtained solution agrees very well with the time and wave vector dependence of the coherent and incoherent intermediate scattering functions as determined from molecular dynamics computer simulations. Furthermore we calculate the wave vector dependence of the Debye-Waller factor for a realistic model of silica and compare these results with the ones obtained from a simulation o…

Drift-controlled anomalous diffusion: a solvable Gaussian model

2000

We introduce a Langevin equation characterized by a time dependent drift. By assuming a temporal power-law dependence of the drift we show that a great variety of behavior is observed in the dynamics of the variance of the process. In particular diffusive, subdiffusive, superdiffusive and stretched exponentially diffusive processes are described by this model for specific values of the two control parameters. The model is also investigated in the presence of an external harmonic potential. We prove that the relaxation to the stationary solution is power-law in time with an exponent controlled by one of model parameters.

Probabilistic description of traffic breakdowns

2001

We analyze the characteristic features of traffic breakdown. To describe this phenomenon we apply to the probabilistic model regarding the jam emergence as the formation of a large car cluster on highway. In these terms the breakdown occurs through the formation of a certain critical nucleus in the metastable vehicle flow, which enables us to confine ourselves to one cluster model. We assume that, first, the growth of the car cluster is governed by attachment of cars to the cluster whose rate is mainly determined by the mean headway distance between the car in the vehicle flow and, may be, also by the headway distance in the cluster. Second, the cluster dissolution is determined by the car …

Molecular mode-coupling theory for supercooled liquids: application to water.

1999

We present mode-coupling equations for the description of the slow dynamics observed in supercooled molecular liquids close to the glass transition. The mode-coupling theory (MCT) originally formulated to study the slow relaxation in simple atomic liquids, and then extended to the analysis of liquids composed by linear molecules, is here generalized to systems of arbitrarily shaped, rigid molecules. We compare the predictions of the theory for the $q$-vector dependence of the molecular nonergodicity parameters, calculated by solving numerically the molecular MCT equations in two different approximation schemes, with ``exact'' results calculated from a molecular dynamics simulation of superc…

Correct thermodynamic forces in Tsallis Thermodynamics: connection with Hill Nanothermodynamics

2005

The equivalence between Tsallis Thermodynamics and Hill Nanothermodynamics is established. The correct thermodynamic forces in Tsallis thermodynamics are pointed out. Through this connection we also find a general expression for the entropic index $q$ which we illustrate with two physical examples, allowing in both cases to relate $q$ to the underlying dynamics of the Hamiltonian systems.

MULTIFRACTAL ELECTRONIC WAVE FUNCTIONS IN THE ANDERSON MODEL OF LOCALIZATION

1992

Investigations of the multifractal properties of electronic wave functions in disordered samples are reviewed. The characteristic mass exponents of the multifractal measure, the generalized dimensions and the singularity spectra are discussed for typical cases. New results for large 3D systems are reported, suggesting that the multifractal properties at the mobility edge which separates localized and extended states are independent of the microscopic details of the model.

Computer Simulation Techniques in Condensed Matter Physics

2005