Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking: The Case of Crazy Clock and Beyond

Maja C Pagnacco,Bojana Bokic,Marko Daković,Yves Caudano,Jelena P Maksimović,Branko Kolaric,Sébastien R Mouchet,Thierry Verbiest

doi:10.3390/sym14020413

Abstract

In this work, we describe the crazy-clock phenomenon involving the state I (low iodide and iodine concentration) to state II (high iodide and iodine concentration with new iodine phase) transition after a Briggs–Rauscher (BR) oscillatory process. While the BR crazy-clock phenomenon is known, this is the first time that crazy-clock behavior is linked and explained with the symmetry-breaking phenomenon, highlighting the entire process in a novel way. The presented phenomenon has been thoroughly investigated by running more than 60 experiments, and evaluated by using statistical cluster K-means analysis. The mixing rate, as well as the magnetic bar shape and dimensions, have a strong influence on the transition appearance. Although the transition for both mixing and no-mixing conditions are taking place completely randomly, by using statistical cluster analysis we obtain different numbers of clusters (showing the time-domains where the transition is more likely to occur). In the case of stirring, clusters are more compact and separated, revealed new hidden details regarding the chemical dynamics of nonlinear processes. The significance of the presented results is beyond oscillatory reaction kinetics since the described example belongs to the small class of chemical systems that shows intrinsic randomness in their response and it might be considered as a real example of a classical liquid random number generator.

Highlights

IntroductionPhase transitions with and without spontaneously broken symmetries are widespread concepts through different areas of physics and physical chemistry
We describe spontaneous symmetry breaking in the case of the nonlinear Briggs–Rauscher reaction
In order to better understand the stochasticity of the mentioned process, we ran more than 60 experiments (30 experiments with mixing and 30 experiments with no-mixing conditions), and we applied the statistical cluster K-means analysis

Summary

Introduction

Phase transitions with and without spontaneously broken symmetries are widespread concepts through different areas of physics and physical chemistry. The applications of spontaneously broken symmetries cover a wide range of condensed matter science topics, such as superconductivity, super-fluidity, Bose–Einstein condensation, nucleation physics, self-assembly processes, morphogenesis, and chemical kinetics. In this account, we describe spontaneous symmetry breaking in the case of the nonlinear Briggs–Rauscher reaction. We highlight the importance of symmetry breaking, in non-equilibrium and pattern formation processes, which is of vital meaning to the understanding of the morphogenesis process and for applications in several areas of biomimetics and nanoscience

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Conclusion