A metastable lattice gas with nearest-neighbor interactions and continuous-time dynamics is studied using a generalized Becker-Doring approach in the multidimensional space of cluster configurations. The pre-exponential of the metastable state lifetime (inverse of nucleation rate) is found to exhibit distinct peaks at integer values of the inverse supersaturation. Peaks are unobservable (infinitely narrow) in the strict limit T->0, but become detectable and eventually dominate at higher temperatures.
We study low-temperature nucleation in kinetic Ising models by analytical and simulational methods, confirming the general result for the average metastable lifetime, <tau> = A*exp(beta*Gamma) (beta = 1/kT) [E. Jordao Neves and R.H. Schonmann, Commun. Math. Phys. 137, 209 (1991)]. Contrary to common belief, we find that both A and Gamma depend significantly on the stochastic dynamic. In particular, for a ``soft dynamic, in which the effects of the interactions and the applied field factorize in the transition rates, Gamma does NOT simply equal the energy barrier against nucleation, as it does for the standard Glauber dynamic, which does not have this factorization property.
Using Monte Carlo simulations, we study the character of the spin-glass (SG) state of a site-diluted dipolar Ising model. We consider systems of dipoles randomly placed on a fraction x of all L^3 sites of a simple cubic lattice that point up or down along a given crystalline axis. For x < 0.65 these systems are known to exhibit an equilibrium spin-glass phase below a temperature T_sg proportional to x. At high dilution and very low temperatures, well deep in the SG phase, we find spiky distributions of the overlap parameter q that are strongly sample-dependent. We focus on spikes associated with large excitations. From cumulative distributions of q and a pair correlation function averaged over several thousands of samples we find that, for the system sizes studied, the average width of spikes, and the fraction of samples with spikes higher than a certain threshold does not vary appreciably with L. This is compared with the behaviour found for the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model.
Consider a dynamical many-body system with a random initial state subsequently evolving through stochastic dynamics. What is the relative importance of the initial state (nature) vs. the realization of the stochastic dynamics (nurture) in predicting the final state? We examined this question for the two-dimensional Ising ferromagnet following an initial deep quench from $T=infty$ to $T=0$. We performed Monte Carlo studies on the overlap between identical twins raised in independent dynamical environments, up to size $L=500$. Our results suggest an overlap decaying with time as $t^{-theta_h}$ with $theta_h = 0.22 pm 0.02$; the same exponent holds for a quench to low but nonzero temperature. This heritability exponent may equal the persistence exponent for the 2D Ising ferromagnet, but the two differ more generally.
We determine the complete asymptotic behaviour of the work distribution in driven stochastic systems described by Langevin equations. Special emphasis is put on the calculation of the pre-exponential factor which makes the result free of adjustable parameters. The method is applied to various examples and excellent agreement with numerical simulations is demonstrated. For the special case of parabolic potentials with time-dependent frequencies, we derive a universal functional form for the asymptotic work distribution.
Recently, a surprising low-temperature behavior has been revealed in a two-leg ladder Ising model with trimer rungs (Weiguo Yin, arXiv:2006.08921). Motivated by these findings, we study this model from another perspective and demonstrate that the reported observations are related to a critical phenomenon in the standard Ising chain. We also discuss a related curiosity, namely, the emergence of a power-law behavior characterized by quasicritical exponents.