No Arabic abstract
We derive a hierarchy of equations which allow a general $n$-body distribution function to be measured by test-particle insertion of between $1$ and $n$ particles, and successfully apply it to measure the pair and three-body distribution functions in a simple fluid. The insertion-based methods overcome the drawbacks of the conventional distance-histogram approach, offering enhanced structural resolution and a more straightforward normalisation. They will be especially useful in characterising the structure of inhomogeneous fluids and investigating closure approximations in liquid state theory.
Linking thermodynamic variables like temperature $T$ and the measure of chaos, the Lyapunov exponents $lambda$, is a question of fundamental importance in many-body systems. By using nonlinear fluid equations in one and three dimensions, we prove that in thermalised flows $lambda propto sqrt{T}$, in agreement with results from frustrated spin systems. This reveals an underlying universality and provides evidence for recent conjectures on the thermal scaling of $lambda$. We also reconcile seemingly disparate effects -- equilibration on one hand and pushing systems out-of-equilibrium on the other -- of many-body chaos by relating $lambda$ to $T$ through the dynamical structures of the flow.
Many-body systems from soap bubbles to suspensions to polymers learn the drives that push them far from equilibrium. This learning has been detected with thermodynamic properties, such as work absorption and strain. We progress beyond these macroscopic properties that were first defined for equilibrium contexts: We quantify statistical mechanical learning with representation learning, a machine-learning model in which information squeezes through a bottleneck. We identify a structural parallel between representation learning and far-from-equilibrium statistical mechanics. Applying this parallel, we measure four facets of many-body systems learning: classification ability, memory capacity, discrimination ability, and novelty detection. Numerical simulations of a classical spin glass illustrate our technique. This toolkit exposes self-organization that eludes detection by thermodynamic measures. Our toolkit more reliably and more precisely detects and quantifies learning by matter.
We introduce a conditional pair distribution function (CPDF) which characterizes the probability density of finding an object (e.g., a particle in a fluid) to certain distance of other, with each of these two having a nearest neighbor to a fixed but otherwise arbitrary distance. This function describes special four-body configurations, but also contains contributions due to the so-called mutual nearest neighbor (two-body) and shared neighbor (three-body) configurations. The CPDF is introduced to improve a Helmholtz free energy method based on space partitions. We derive exact expressions of the CPDF and various associated quantities for randomly distributed, non-interacting points at Euclidean spaces of one, two and three dimensions. Results may be of interest in many diverse scientific fields, from fluid physics to social and biological sciences.
We consider a non-interacting many-fermion system populating levels of a unitary random matrix ensemble (equivalent to the q=2 complex Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model) - a generic model of single-particle quantum chaos. We study the corresponding many-particle level statistics by calculating the spectral form factor analytically using algebraic methods of random matrix theory, and match it with an exact numerical simulation. Despite the integrability of the theory, the many-body spectral rigidity is found to have a surprisingly rich landscape. In particular, we find a residual repulsion of distant many-body levels stemming from single-particle chaos, together with islands of level attraction. These results are encoded in an exponential ramp in the spectral form-factor, which we show to be a universal feature of non-ergodic many-fermion systems embedded in a chaotic medium.
We present a new method which uses Feynman-like diagrams to calculate the statistical quantities of embedded many-body random matrix problems. The method provides a promising alternative to existing techniques and offers many important simplifications. We use it here to find the fourth, sixth and eighth moments of the level density for k fermions or bosons interacting through a random hermitian potential in the limit where the number of possible single-particle states is taken to infinity. All share the same transition, starting immediately after 2k = m, from moments arising from a semi-circular level density to gaussian moments. The results also reveal a striking feature; the domain of the 2nth moment is naturally divided into n subdomains specified by the points 2k = m, 3k = m, ..., nk = m.