Search results for "statistical mechanics"
showing 10 items of 706 documents
Fluids in extreme confinement.
2012
For extremely confined fluids with two-dimensional density $n$ in slit geometry of accessible width $L$, we prove that in the limit $L\to 0$ the lateral and transversal degrees of freedom decouple, and the latter become ideal-gas-like. For small wall separation the transverse degrees of freedom can be integrated out and renormalize the interaction potential. We identify $n L^2 $ as hidden smallness parameter of the confinement problem and evaluate the effective two-body potential analytically, which allows calculating the leading correction to the free energy exactly. Explicitly, we map a fluid of hard spheres in extreme confinement onto a 2d-fluid of disks with an effective hard-core diame…
Dynamical mean-field theory and weakly non-linear analysis for the phase separation of active Brownian particles
2015
Recently, we have derived an effective Cahn-Hilliard equation for the phase separation dynamics of active Brownian particles by performing a weakly non-linear analysis of the effective hydrodynamic equations for density and polarization [Speck et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 218304 (2014)]. Here, we develop and explore this strategy in more detail and show explicitly how to get to such a large-scale, mean-field description starting from the microscopic dynamics. The effective free energy emerging from this approach has the form of a conventional Ginzburg-Landau function. On the coarsest scale, our results thus agree with the mapping of active phase separation onto that of passive fluids with …
Second-Order Phase Transition Induced by Deterministic Fluctuations in Aperiodic Eight-State Potts Models
1999
We investigate the influence of aperiodic modulations of the exchange interactions between nearest-neighbour rows on the phase transition of the two-dimensional eight-state Potts model. The systems are studied numerically through intensive Monte Carlo simulations using the Swendsen-Wang cluster algorithm for different aperiodic sequences. The transition point is located through duality relations, and the critical behaviour is investigated using FSS techniques at criticality. While the pure system exhibits a first-order transition, we show that the deterministic fluctuations resulting from the aperiodic coupling distribution are liable to modify drastically the physical properties in the nei…
Spectral energy distribution and generalized Wien's law for photons and cosmic string loops
2014
Physical objects with energy $u_w(l) \sim l^{-3w}$ with $l$ characteristic length and $w$ a dimensionless constant, lead to an equation of state $p=w\rho$, with $p$ the pressure and $\rho$ the energy density. Special entities with thisbproperty are, for instance, photons ($u = hc/l$, with $l$ the wavelength) with $w = 1/3$, and some models of cosmic string loops ($u =(c^4/aG)l$, with $l$ the length of the loop and $a$ a numerical constant), with $w = -1/3$. Here, we discuss some features of the spectral energy distribution of these systems and the corresponding generalization of Wien's law, which in terms of $l$ has the form $Tl_{mp}^{3w}=constant$, being $l_{mp}$ the most probable size of …
Trajectory Statistics of Confined L\'evy Flights and Boltzmann-type Equilibria
2013
We analyze a specific class of random systems that are driven by a symmetric L\'{e}vy stable noise, where Langevin representation is absent. In view of the L\'{e}vy noise sensitivity to environmental inhomogeneities, the pertinent random motion asymptotically sets down at the Boltzmann-type equilibrium, represented by a probability density function (pdf) $\rho_*(x) \sim \exp [-\Phi (x)]$. Here, we infer pdf $\rho (x,t)$ based on numerical path-wise simulation of the underlying jump-type process. A priori given data are jump transition rates entering the master equation for $\rho (x,t)$ and its target pdf $\rho_*(x)$. To simulate the above processes, we construct a suitable modification of t…
Application of thermodynamics to driven systems
2007
Application of thermodynamics to driven systems is discussed. As particular examples, simple traffic flow models are considered. On a microscopic level, traffic flow is described by Bando's optimal velocity model in terms of accelerating and decelerating forces. It allows to introduce kinetic, potential, as well as total energy, which is the internal energy of the car system in view of thermodynamics. The latter is not conserved, although it has certain value in any of two possible stationary states corresponding either to fixed point or to limit cycle in the space of headways and velocities. On a mesoscopic level of description, the size n of car cluster is considered as a stochastic varia…
Controlling stability and transport of magnetic microswimmers by an external field
2019
We investigate the hydrodynamic stability and transport of magnetic microswimmers in an external field using a kinetic theory framework. Combining linear stability analysis and nonlinear 3D continuum simulations, we show that for sufficiently large activity and magnetic field strengths, a homogeneous polar steady state is unstable for both puller and pusher swimmers. This instability is caused by the amplification of anisotropic hydrodynamic interactions due to the external alignment and leads to a partial depolarization and a reduction of the average transport speed of the swimmers in the field direction. Notably, at higher field strengths a reentrant hydrodynamic stability emerges where t…
Phase Equilibria of Lattice Polymers from Histogram Reweighting Monte Carlo Simulations
1998
Histogram-reweighting Monte Carlo simulations were used to obtain polymer / solvent phase diagrams for lattice homopolymers of chain lengths up to r=1000 monomers. The simulation technique was based on performing a series of grand canonical Monte Carlo calculations for a small number of state points and combining the results to obtain the phase behavior of a system over a range of temperatures and densities. Critical parameters were determined from mixed-field finite-size scaling concepts by matching the order parameter distribution near the critical point to the distribution for the three-dimensional Ising universality class. Calculations for the simple cubic lattice (coordination number z…
Noise delayed decay of unstable states: theory versus numerical simulations
2004
We study the noise delayed decay of unstable nonequilibrium states in nonlinear dynamical systems within the framework of the overdamped Brownian motion model. We give the exact expressions for the decay times of unstable states for polynomial potential profiles and obtain nonmonotonic behavior of the decay times as a function of the noise intensity for the unstable nonequilibrium states. The analytical results are compared with numerical simulations.
Dynamics of entanglement in one-dimensional spin systems
2003
We study the dynamics of quantum correlations in a class of exactly solvable Ising-type models. We analyze in particular the time evolution of initial Bell states created in a fully polarized background and on the ground state. We find that the pairwise entanglement propagates with a velocity proportional to the reduced interaction for all the four Bell states. Singlet-like states are favored during the propagation, in the sense that triplet-like states change their character during the propagation under certain circumstances. Characteristic for the anisotropic models is the instantaneous creation of pairwise entanglement from a fully polarized state; furthermore, the propagation of pairwis…