Off-equilibrium scaling behaviors across first-order transitions

Abstract

We study off-equilibrium behaviors at first-order transitions (FOTs) driven by a time dependence of the temperature across the transition point Tc, such as the linear behavior T(t)/Tc = 1 - t/ts where ts is a time scale. In particular, we investigate the possibility of nontrivial off-equilibrium scaling behaviors in the regime of slow changes, corresponding to large ts, analogous to those arising at continuous transitions, which lead to the so-called Kibble-Zurek mechanism. We consider the 2D Potts models which provide an ideal theoretical laboratory to investigate issues related to FOTs driven by thermal fluctuations. We put forward general ansatzes for off-equilibrium scaling behaviors around the time t=0 corresponding to Tc. Then we present numerical results for the q=10 and q=20 Potts models. We show that phenomena analogous to the Kibble-Zurek off-equilibrium scaling emerge also at FOTs with relaxational dynamics, when appropriate boundary conditions are considered, such as mixed boundary conditions favoring different phases at the opposite sides of the system, which enforce an interface in the system.

11 pages, some more refs

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• Coherent and dissipative dynamics at quantum phase transitions
• Non-adiabatic dynamics across a first order quantum phase transition: Quantized bubble nucleation
• Observation of generalized Kibble-Zurek mechanism across a first-order quantum phase transition in a spinor condensate
• Dynamic off-equilibrium transition in systems slowly driven across thermal first-order phase transitions
• Scaling properties of the dynamics at first-order quantum transitions when boundary conditions favor one of the two phases
• Off-equilibrium scaling behaviors driven by time-dependent external fields in three-dimensional O(N) vector models
• Dynamics of the quantum search and quench-induced first-order phase transitions
• Renormalization-group theory for cooling first-order phase transitions in Potts models
• Dynamical off-equilibrium scaling across magnetic first-order phase transitions
• Scaling behavior of Ising systems at first-order transitions
• Out-of-equilibrium dynamics across the first-order quantum transitions of one-dimensional quantum Ising models
• Observation of heat scaling across a first-order quantum phase transition in a spinor condensate
• Spinodal-like scaling behavior after a temperature quench across the first-order phase transition in three-dimensional $q$-state Potts models