Dynamic Universality Class Research Articles

Bringing Together Two Paradigms of Nonequilibrium: Fragile versus Robust Aging in Driven Glassy Systems.

There are two key paradigms for nonequilibrium dynamics: on the one hand, aging toward an equilibrium state that cannot be reached on reasonable timescales; on the other, external driving that can lead to nonequilibrium steady states. We explore how these two mechanisms interact by studying the behavior of trap models, which are paradigmatic descriptions of slow glassy dynamics, when driven by trajectory bias toward high or low activity. To diagnose whether the driven systems continue to age, we establish a framework for mapping the biased dynamics to a Markovian time evolution with time-dependent transition rates. We find that the original aging dynamics reacts in two qualitatively distinct ways to the driving: it can be destroyed by the driving of any nonzero strength ("fragile" aging), whereby the dynamics either reaches an active steady state or effectively freezes, or it can persist within a finite range of driving strengths around the undriven case ("robust" aging). This classification into fragile and robust aging could form the basis for distinguishing different universality classes of aging dynamics.

Segregation kinetics of miktoarm star polymers: A dissipative particle dynamics study.

We study the phase separation kinetics of miktoarm star polymer (MSP) melts/blends with diverse architectures using dissipative particle dynamics simulation. Our study focuses on symmetric and asymmetric miktoarm star polymer (SMSP/AMSP) mixtures based on arm composition and number. For a fixed MSP chain size, the characteristic microphase-separated domains initially show diffusive growth with a growth exponent ϕ∼1/3 for both melts that gradually crossover to saturation at late times. The simulation results demonstrate that the evolution morphology of SMSP melt exhibits perfect dynamic scaling with varying arm numbers; the timescale follows a power-law decay with an exponent θ≃1 as the number of arms increases. The structural constraints on AMSP melts cause the domain growth rate to decrease as the number of one type of arms increases while their length remains fixed. This increase in the number of arms for AMSP corresponds to increased off-criticality. The saturation length in AMSP follows a power-law increase with an exponent λ≃2/3 as off-criticality decreases. Additionally, macrophase separation kinetics in SMSP/AMSP blends show a transition from viscous (ϕ∼1) to inertial (ϕ∼2/3) hydrodynamic growth regimes at late times; this exhibits the same dynamical universality class as linear polymer blends, with slight deviations at early stages.

Universality Classes of Relativistic Fluid Dynamics: Foundations.

A general organizing principle is proposed that can be used to derive the equations of motion describing the near-equilibrium dynamics of causal and thermodynamically stable relativistic systems. The latter are found to display some new type of universal behavior near equilibrium that allows them to be grouped into universality classes defined by their degrees of freedom, information content, and conservation laws. The universality classes expose a number of surprising equivalences between different theories, shedding new light on the near-equilibrium behavior of relativistic systems.

Universality classes of relativistic fluid dynamics: Applications

Universality classes of relativistic fluid dynamics: Applications

Quest for the golden ratio universality class.

Using mode-coupling theory, the conditions for all allowed dynamical universality classes for the conserved modes in one-dimensional driven systems are presented in closed form as a function of the stationary currents and their derivatives. With an eye on the search for the golden ratio universality class, the existence of some families of microscopic models is ruled out a priori by using an Onsager-type macroscopic current symmetry. In particular, if the currents are symmetric or antisymmetric under the interchange of the conserved densities, then at equal mean densities the golden modes can only appear in the antisymmetric case and if the conserved quantities are correlated, but not in the symmetric case where at equal densities one mode is always diffusive and the second may be either Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ), modified KPZ, 3/2-Lévy, or also diffusive. We also show that the predictions of mode-coupling theory for a noisy chain of harmonic oscillators are exact.

Dynamics of the O(4) critical point in QCD: Critical pions and diffusion in model G

We present a detailed study of the finite momentum dynamics of the O(4) critical point of QCD, which lies in the dynamic universality class of “model G.” The critical scaling of the model is analyzed in multiple dynamical channels. For instance, the finite momentum analysis allows us to precisely extract the pion dispersion curve below the critical point. The pion velocity is in striking agreement with the predictions relation and static universality. The pion damping rate and velocity are both consistent with the dynamical critical exponent ζ=3/2 of model G. Similarly, although the critical amplitude for the diffusion coefficient of the conserved O(4) charges is small, it is clearly visible both in the restored phase and with finite explicit symmetry breaking, and its dynamical scaling is again consistent with ζ=3/2. We determine a new set of universal dynamical critical amplitude ratios relating the diffusion coefficient to a suitably defined order parameter relaxation time. We also show that in a finite volume simulation, the chiral condensate diffuses on the coset manifold in a manner consistent with dynamical scaling, and with a diffusion coefficient that is determined by the transport coefficients of hydrodynamic pions. Finally, the amplitude ratios (together with other nonuniversal amplitudes also reported here) compile all relevant information for further studies of model G both in and out of equilibrium. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Universal anomalous fluctuations in charged single-file systems

Introducing a general class of one-dimensional single-file systems (meaning that particle crossings are prohibited) of interacting hardcore particles with internal degrees of freedom (called charge), we exhibit a dynamical universality reflected in anomalous statistical properties of macroscopic fluctuating observables such as charge transfer. We find that stringent dynamical constraints lead to universal anomalous statistics of cumulative charge currents manifested both on the timescale characteristic of typical fluctuations and also in the rate function describing rare events. By computing the full counting statistics of net transferred charge between two extended subsystems, we establish a number of unorthodox dynamical properties in an analytic fashion. Most prominently, typical fluctuations in equilibrium are governed by a universal distribution that markedly deviates from the expected Gaussian statistics, whereas large fluctuations are described by an exotic large-deviation rate function featuring an exceptional triple critical point. Far from equilibrium, competition between dynamical phases leads to dynamical phase transitions of first and second order and spontaneous breaking of fluctuation symmetry of the univariate charge large-deviation function. The rich phenomenology of the outlined dynamical universality is exemplified on an exactly solvable classical cellular automaton of charged hardcore particles. We determine the dynamical phase diagram in the framework of Lee–Yang's theory of phase transitions and exhibit a hyper-dimensional diagram of distinct dynamical regimes. Our findings lead us to conclude that the conventional classification of dynamical universality classes based on the algebraic dynamical exponents and asymptotic scaling functions that characterize hydrodynamic relaxation of the dynamical structure factor is incomplete and calls for refinement. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Dynamical Criticality of Magnetization Transfer in Integrable Spin Chains.

Recent studies have found that fluctuations of magnetization transfer in integrable spin chains violate the central limit property. Here, we revisit the problem of anomalous counting statistics in the Landau-Lifshitz field theory by specializing to two distinct anomalous regimes featuring a dynamical critical point. By performing optimized numerical simulations using an integrable space-time discretization, we extract the algebraic growth exponents of time-dependent cumulants which attain their threshold values. The distinctly non-Gaussian statistics of magnetization transfer in the easy-axis regime is found to converge toward the universal distribution of charged single-file systems. At the isotropic point, we infer a weakly non-Gaussian distribution, corroborating the view that superdiffusive spin transport in integrable spin chains does not belong to any known dynamical universality class.

Brownian-molecular dynamic correspondence in two-dimensional hard-disk fluids

It has been both experimentally and theoretically observed that the structural and dynamical properties of glass-forming fluids can be scaled and described within the dynamic universality class of hard spheres. One of the key predictions of this universality is the long-time dynamic equivalence between Brownian and Molecular dynamics systems governed by the same kind of interaction potential. However, the application and extent of this principle has not been validated for two-dimensional systems. To this end, we employ Brownian and Molecular Dynamics simulations to validate this principle in the two-dimensional case, analysing the long-time properties of systems made up of monodisperse hard disks. By introducing a suitable density-dependent scaling factor, we successfully extend the principle of dynamic equivalence to two dimensions. This dynamic correspondence will facilitate the interpretation of long-time molecular dynamic properties in the context of colloidal dynamics. For instance, this correspondence will allow us to establish the extension of the colloidal freezing criterion to the molecular case.

Proliferating active matter.

The fascinating patterns of collective motion created by autonomously driven particles have fuelled active-matter research for over two decades. So far, theoretical active-matter research has often focused on systems with a fixed number of particles. This constraint imposes strict limitations on what behaviours can and cannot emerge. However, a hallmark of life is the breaking of local cell number conservation by replication and death. Birth and death processes must be taken into account, for example, to predict the growth and evolution of a microbial biofilm, the expansion of a tumour, or the development from a fertilized egg into an embryo and beyond. In this Perspective, we argue that unique features emerge in these systems because proliferation represents a distinct form of activity: not only do the proliferating entities consume and dissipate energy, they also inject biomass and degrees of freedom capable of further self-proliferation, leading to myriad dynamic scenarios. Despite this complexity, a growing number of studies document common collective phenomena in various proliferating soft-matter systems. This generality leads us to propose proliferation as another direction of active-matter physics, worthy of a dedicated search for new dynamical universality classes. Conceptual challenges abound, from identifying control parameters and understanding large fluctuations and nonlinear feedback mechanisms to exploring the dynamics and limits of information flow in self-replicating systems. We believe that, by extending the rich conceptual framework developed for conventional active matter to proliferating active matter, researchers can have a profound impact on quantitative biology and reveal fascinating emergent physics along the way.

The BKT transition and its dynamics in a spin fluid.

We study the effect of particle mobility on phase transitions in a spin fluid in two dimensions. The presence of a phase transition of the BKT universality class is shown in an off-lattice model of particles with purely repulsive interaction employing computer simulations. A critical spin wave region 0 < T < TBKT is found with a nonuniversal exponent η(T) that follows the shape suggested by BKT theory, including a critical value consistent with ηBKT = 1/4. One can observe a transition from power-law decay to exponential decay in the static correlation functions at the transition temperature TBKT, which is supported by finite-size scaling analysis. A critical temperature TBKT = 0.17(1) is suggested. Investigations into the dynamic aspects of the phase transition are carried out. The short-time behavior of the incoherent spin autocorrelation function agrees with the Nelson-Fisher prediction, whereas the long-time behavior differs from the finite-size scaling known for the static XY model. Analysis of coherent spin wave dynamics shows that the spin wave peak is a propagating mode that can be reasonably well fitted by hydrodynamic theory. The mobility of the particles strongly enhances damping of the spin waves, but the model still lies within the dynamic universality class of the standard XY model.

Dynamic scaling of stochastic thermodynamic observables for chemical reactions at and away from equilibrium.

Physical kinetic roughening processes are well-known to exhibit universal scaling of observables that fluctuate in space and time. Are there analogous dynamic scaling laws that are unique to the chemical reaction mechanisms available synthetically and occurring naturally? Here, we formulate an approach to the dynamic scaling of stochastic fluctuations in thermodynamic observables at and away from equilibrium. Both analytical expressions and numerical simulations confirm our dynamic scaling ansatz with associated scaling exponents, function, and law. A survey of common chemical mechanisms reveals classes that organize according to the molecularity of the reactions involved, the nature of the reaction vessel and external reservoirs, (non)equilibrium conditions, and the extent of autocatalysis in the reaction network. Varying experimental parameters, such as temperature, can cause coupled reactions capable of chemical feedback to transition between these classes. While path observables, such as the dynamical activity, have scaling exponents that are time-independent, the variance in the entropy production and flow can have time-dependent scaling exponents and self-averaging properties as a result of temporal correlations that emerge during thermodynamically irreversible processes. Altogether, these results establish dynamic universality classes in the nonequilibrium fluctuations of thermodynamic observables for well-mixed chemical reactions.

Fracton Hydrodynamics without Time-Reversal Symmetry.

We present an effective field theory for the nonlinear fluctuating hydrodynamics of a single conserved charge with or without time-reversal symmetry, based on the Martin-Siggia-Rose formalism. Applying this formalism to fluids with only charge and multipole conservation, and with broken time-reversal symmetry, we predict infinitely many new dynamical universality classes, including some with arbitrarily large upper critical dimensions. Using large scale simulations of classical Markov chains, we find numerical evidence for a breakdown of hydrodynamics in quadrupole-conserving models with broken time-reversal symmetry in one spatial dimension. Our framework can be applied to the hydrodynamics around stationary states of open systems, broadening the applicability of previously developed ideas and methods to a wide range of systems in driven and active matter.

Critical dynamics of relativistic diffusion

We study the dynamics of self-interacting scalar fields with Z2 symmetry governed by a relativistic Israel-Stuart type diffusion equation in the vicinity of a critical point. We calculate spectral functions of the order parameter in mean-field approximation as well as using first-principles classical-statistical lattice simulations in real-time. We observe that the spectral functions are well-described by single Breit-Wigner shapes. Away from criticality, the dispersion matches the expectations from the mean-field approach. At the critical point, the spectral functions largely keep their Breit-Wigner shape, albeit with non-trivial power-law dispersion relations. We extract the characteristic time-scales as well as the dynamic critical exponent z, verifying the existence of a dynamic scaling regime. In addition, we derive the universal scaling functions implied by the Breit-Wigner shape with critical power-law dispersion and show that they match the data. Considering equations of motion for a system coupled to a heat bath as well as an isolated system, we perform this study for two different dynamic universality classes, both in two and three spatial dimensions.

Tunable transport in the mass-imbalanced Fermi-Hubbard model

The late-time dynamics of quantum many-body systems is organized in distinct dynamical universality classes, characterized by their conservation laws and thus by their emergent hydrodynamic transport. Here, we study transport in the one-dimensional Hubbard model with different masses of the two fermionic species. To this end, we develop a quantum Boltzmann approach valid in the limit of weak interactions. We explore the crossover from ballistic to diffusive transport, whose timescale strongly depends on the mass ratio of the two species. For timescales accessible with matrix product operators, we find excellent agreement between these numerically exact results and the quantum Boltzmann equation, even for intermediate interactions. We investigate two scenarios which have been recently studied with ultracold atom experiments. First, in the presence of a tilt, the quantum Boltzmann equation predicts that transport is significantly slowed down and becomes subdiffusive, consistent with previous studies. Second, we study transport probed by displacing a harmonic confinement potential and find good quantitative agreement with recent experimental data [N. Darkwah Oppong et al., arXiv:2011.12411]. Our results demonstrate that the quantum Boltzmann equation is a useful tool to study complex non-equilibrium states in inhomogeneous potentials, as often probed with synthetic quantum systems.

Breakdown of hydrodynamics below four dimensions in a fracton fluid

Hydrodynamics is a universal effective theory that describes the thermalization of chaotic many-body systems, and depends only on the symmetries of the underlying theory. Although the Navier–Stokes equations can describe classical liquids and gases, quantum fluids of ultracold atoms or quark–gluon plasma, they cannot yet describe the phases of matter where particle motion is kinematically constrained. Here we present the nonlinear fluctuating hydrodynamics of models with simultaneous charge/mass, dipole/centre of mass and momentum conservation. This hydrodynamic effective theory is unstable below four spatial dimensions: dipole-conserving fluids at rest are unstable to fluctuations, which drive the system to a dynamical universality class with qualitatively distinct features from conventional fluids. In one spatial dimension, our construction is reminiscent of the well-established renormalization group flow of the stochastic Navier–Stokes equations; however, the fixed point we find possesses subdiffusive scaling rather than the superdiffusive scaling of the Kardar–Parisi–Zhang universality class. We numerically simulate many-body classical dynamics in one- and two-dimensional models with dipole and momentum conservation, and find evidence for the predicted breakdown of hydrodynamics. Our theory provides a controlled example of how kinematic constraints lead to a rich landscape of dynamical universality classes in high-dimensional models. Fractons are particles that can only move in tandem, which substantially affects their thermalization. Below four spatial dimensions, an unconventional dynamical universality class can emerge as thermal fluctuations destroy hydrodynamic behaviour.

Tunable transport in the mass-imbalanced Fermi Hubbard model

The late-time dynamics of quantum many-body systems is organized in distinct dynamical universality classes, characterized by their conservation laws and thus by their emergent hydrodynamic transport. Here, we study transport in the one-dimensional Hubbard model with different masses of the two fermionic species. To this end, we develop a quantum Boltzmann approach valid in the limit of weak interactions. We explore the crossover from ballistic to diffusive transport, whose timescale strongly depends on the mass ratio of the two species. For timescales accessible with matrix product operators, we find excellent agreement between these numerically exact results and the quantum Boltzmann equation, even for intermediate interactions. We investigate two scenarios which have been recently studied with ultracold atom experiments. First, in the presence of a tilt, the quantum Boltzmann equation predicts that transport is significantly slowed down and becomes subdiffusive, consistent with previous studies. Second, we study transport probed by displacing a harmonic confinement potential and find good quantitative agreement with recent experimental data from [Oppong et al., arXiv:2011.12411]. Our results demonstrate that the quantum Boltzmann equation is a useful tool to study complex non-equilibrium states in inhomogeneous potentials, as often probed with synthetic quantum systems.

Exact Anomalous Current Fluctuations in a Deterministic Interacting Model.

We analytically compute the full counting statistics of charge transfer in a classical automaton of interacting charged particles. Deriving a closed-form expression for the moment generating function with respect to a stationary equilibrium state, we employ asymptotic analysis to infer the structure of charge current fluctuations for a continuous range of timescales. The solution exhibits several unorthodox features. Most prominently, on the timescale of typical fluctuations the probability distribution of the integrated charge current in a stationary ensemble without bias is distinctly non-Gaussian despite diffusive behavior of dynamical charge susceptibility. While inducing a charge imbalance is enough to recover Gaussian fluctuations, we find that higher cumulants grow indefinitely in time with different exponents, implying singular scaled cumulants. We associate this phenomenon with the lack of a regularity condition on moment generating functions and the onset of a dynamical critical point. In effect, the scaled cumulant generating function does not, irrespectively of charge bias, represent a faithful generating function of the scaled cumulants, yet the associated Legendre dual yields the correct large-deviation rate function. Our findings hint at novel types of dynamical universality classes in deterministic many-body systems.

Dynamics of the O(4) critical point in QCD

We perform a Langevin simulation of the $O(4)$ critical point, which lies in the dynamic universality class of ``model G.'' This is the dynamic universality class of the chiral phase transition in QCD with two massless flavors. The axial charge and the order parameter ${\ensuremath{\phi}}_{a}=(\ensuremath{\sigma},\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\ensuremath{\pi}})$ exhibit a rich dynamical interplay, which reflects the qualitative differences in the hydrodynamic effective theories above and below ${T}_{c}$. From the axial charge correlators on the critical line we extract a dynamical critical exponent of $\ensuremath{\zeta}=1.47\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.01(\text{stat.})$, which is compatible with the theoretical expectation of $\ensuremath{\zeta}=d/2$ (with $d=3$) when systematic errors are taken into account. At low temperatures, we quantitatively match the $O(4)$ simulations to the superfluid effective theory of soft pions.

1/3 Power-Law Universality Class out of Stochastic Driving in Interacting Systems.

In this Letter, we study the mean-field dynamics of a general class of many-body systems with stochastically fluctuating interactions. Our findings reveal a universal algebraic decay of the order parameter m(t)∼t^{-χ} with an exponent χ=1/3 that is independent of most system details including the strength of the stochastic driving, the energy spectrum of the undriven systems, the initial states, and even the driving protocols. It is shown that such a dynamical universality class can be understood as a consequence of a diffusive process with a time-dependent diffusion coefficient which is determined self-consistently during the evolution. The finite-size effect, as well as the relevance of our results with current experiments in high-finesse cavity QED systems are also discussed.