Universal exotic dynamics in critical mesoscopic systems: Simulating the square root of Avogadro's number of spins

Abstract

We explicitly demonstrate the universality of critical dynamics through unprecedented large-scale GPU-based simulations of two out-of-equilibrium processes, comparing the behavior of spin-$1/2$ Ising and spin-$1$ Blume-Capel models on a square lattice. In the first protocol, a completely disordered system is instantaneously brought into contact with a thermal bath at the critical temperature, allowing it to evolve until the coherence length exceeds $10^3$ lattice spacings. Finite-size effects are negligible due to the mesoscopic scale of the lattice sizes studied, with linear dimensions up to $L=2^{22}$ and $2^{19}$ for the Ising and Blume-Capel models, respectively. Our numerical data, and the subsequent analysis, demonstrate a strong dynamic universality between the two models and provide the most precise estimate to date of the dynamic critical exponent for this universality class, $z=2.1676(1)$. In the second protocol, we corroborate the role of the universal ratio of dynamic and static length scales in achieving an exponential acceleration in the approach to equilibrium just \emph{above} the critical temperature, through a time-dependent variation of the thermal bath temperature. The results presented in this work leverage our CUDA-based numerical code, breaking the world record for the simulation speed of the Ising model.

10 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, appendix included as supplementary material, version accepted for publication in Physical Review Research