No Arabic abstract
The persistence exponent theta for the global order parameter, M(t), of a system quenched from the disordered phase to its critical point describes the probability, p(t) sim t^{-theta}, that M(t) does not change sign in the time interval t following the quench. We calculate theta to O(epsilon^2) for model A of critical dynamics (and to order epsilon for model C) and show that at this order M(t) is a non-Markov process. Consequently, theta is a new exponent. The calculation is performed by expanding around a Markov process, using a simplified version of the perturbation theory recently introduced by Majumdar and Sire [Phys. Rev. Lett. _77_, 1420 (1996); cond-mat/9604151].
The persistence of a stochastic variable is the probability that it does not cross a given level during a fixed time interval. Although persistence is a simple concept to understand, it is in general hard to calculate. Here we consider zero mean Gaussian stationary processes in discrete time $n$. Few results are known for the persistence $P_0(n)$ in discrete time, except the large time behavior which is characterized by the nontrivial constant $theta$ through $P_0(n)sim theta^n$. Using a modified version of the Independent Interval Approximation (IIA) that we developed before, we are able to calculate $P_0(n)$ analytically in $z$-transform space in terms of the autocorrelation function $A(n)$. If $A(n)to0$ as $ntoinfty$, we extract $theta$ numerically, while if $A(n)=0$, for finite $n>N$, we find $theta$ exactly (within the IIA). We apply our results to three special cases: the nearest neighbor-correlated first order moving average process where $A(n)=0$ for $ n>1$, the double exponential-correlated second order autoregressive process where $A(n)=c_1lambda_1^n+c_2lambda_2^n$, and power law-correlated variables where $A(n)sim n^{-mu}$. Apart from the power-law case when $mu<5$, we find excellent agreement with simulations.
Recent experiments using fluorescence spectroscopy have been able to probe the dynamics of conformational fluctuations in proteins. The fluctuations are Gaussian but do not decay exponentially, and are therefore, non-Markovian. We present a theory where non-Markovian fluctuation dynamics emerges naturally from the superposition of the Markovian fluctuations of the normal modes of the protein. A Rouse-like dynamics of the normal modes provides very good agreement to the experimentally measured correlation functions. We provide simple scaling arguments rationalising our results.
Persistence probabilities of the interface height in (1+1)- and (2+1)-dimensional atomistic, solid-on-solid, stochastic models of surface growth are studied using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, with emphasis on models that belong to the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) universality class. Both the initial transient and the long-time steady-state regimes are investigated. We show that for growth models in the MBE universality class, the nonlinearity of the underlying dynamical equation is clearly reflected in the difference between the measured values of the positive and negative persistence exponents in both transient and steady-state regimes. For the MBE universality class, the positive and negative persistence exponents in the steady-state are found to be $theta^S_{+} = 0.66 pm 0.02$ and $theta^S_{-} = 0.78 pm 0.02$, respectively, in (1+1) dimensions, and $theta^S_{+} = 0.76 pm 0.02$ and $theta^S_{-} =0.85 pm 0.02$, respectively, in (2+1) dimensions. The noise reduction technique is applied on some of the (1+1)-dimensional models in order to obtain accurate values of the persistence exponents. We show analytically that a relation between the steady-state persistence exponent and the dynamic growth exponent, found earlier to be valid for linear models, should be satisfied by the smaller of the two steady-state persistence exponents in the nonlinear models. Our numerical results for the persistence exponents are consistent with this prediction. We also find that the steady-state persistence exponents can be obtained from simulations over times that are much shorter than that required for the interface to reach the steady state. The dependence of the persistence probability on the system size and the sampling time is shown to be described by a simple scaling form.
Most theories of homogeneous nucleation are based on a Fokker-Planck-like description of the behavior of the mass of clusters. Here we will show that these approaches are incomplete for a large class of nucleating systems, as they assume the effective dynamics of the clusters to be Markovian, i.e., memoryless. We characterize these non-Markovian dynamics and show how this influences the dynamics of clusters during nucleation. Our results are validated by simulations of a three-dimensional Ising model with locally conserved magnetization.
In this paper we study the driven critical dynamics in the three-state quantum chiral clock model. This is motivated by a recent experiment, which verified the Kibble-Zurek mechanism and the finite-time scaling in a reconfigurable one-dimensional array of $^{87}$Rb atoms with programmable interactions. This experimental model shares the same universality class with the quantum chiral clock model and has been shown to possess a nontrivial non-integer dynamic exponent $z$. Besides the case of changing the transverse field as realized in the experiment, we also consider the driven dynamics under changing the longitudinal field. For both cases, we verify the finite-time scaling for a non-integer dynamic exponent $z$. Furthermore, we determine the critical exponents $beta$ and $delta$ numerically for the first time. We also investigate the dynamic scaling behavior including the thermal effects, which are inevitably involved in experiments. From a nonequilibrium dynamic point of view, our results strongly support that there is a direct continuous phase transition between the ordered phase and the disordered phase. Also, we show that the method based on the finite-time scaling theory provides a promising approach to determine the critical point and critical properties.