Ergodic-nonergodic Transition Research Articles

Ergodic-nonergodic transition with cold spinless fermions in a cavity

We consider a one-dimensional spinless Fermi gas coupled to an optical cavity. Using exact diagonalization, we numerically study the model and find that the system can undergo the ergodic-nonergodic transition, which depends on the cavity-fermion coupling strength and the fermion-fermion interacting strength. We demonstrate that the cavity-fermion coupling strength, which breaks the integrability of the system, can lead to the ergodic phase in the strong-interaction regime. It is shown that the ergodic-nonergodic transition is characterized by static statistical methods, including level-spacing distribution and the average ratio of consecutive level spacing. To experimentally observe the transition, we also study the dynamic properties of the system, including the out-of-time-ordered correlator, the time evolution of the occupancy imbalance, and the survival probability, which manifest different behaviors in different phases. In addition, we find that even though the system contains long-range interactions, it does not exhibit information fast scrambling whether in the ergodic phase or the nonergodic phase.

Non-equilibrium relaxation and aging in the dynamics of a dipolar fluid quenched towards the glass transition

The recently developed non-equilibrium self-consistent generalized Langevin equation theory of the dynamics of liquids of non-spherically interacting particles [2016 J. Phys. Chem. B 120 7975] is applied to the description of the irreversible relaxation of a thermally and mechanically quenched dipolar fluid. Specifically, we consider a dipolar hard-sphere liquid quenched (at t w = 0) from full equilibrium conditions towards different ergodic–non-ergodic transitions. Qualitatively different scenarios are predicted by the theory for the time evolution of the system after the quench (t w > 0), that depend on both the kind of transition approached and the specific features of the protocol of preparation. Each of these scenarios is characterized by the kinetics displayed by a set of structural correlations, and also by the development of two characteristic times describing the relaxation of the translational and rotational dynamics, allowing us to highlight the crossover from equilibration to aging in the system and leading to the prediction of different underlying mechanisms and relaxation laws for the dynamics at each of the glass transitions explored.

Coexistence of liquid-like emulsion and solid-like emulsion glass beyond the close-packing limit

The unjamming-jamming transition of a concentrated oil-in-water emulsion is generally characterized by a critical volume fraction of the dispersed phase. However, in this work, we demonstrate that both liquid-like emulsions and solid-like glasses can coexist in a certain range of volume fraction. At a given volume fraction, jammed glasses can be obtained from their emulsions directly by applying mechanical agitation. This agitation-induced ergodic-nonergodic transition is attributed to the reduction of the droplet size. The decrease of the droplet size leads to a significant growth of lubrication repulsions between neighboring particles. This coexistent behavior indicates that size does matter in concentrated dispersions of soft particles. An application example showed that the elasticity of solid-like glass can give the medium supporting ability while the liquid-like emulsion cannot.

Dynamics of a noninteracting colloidal fluid in a quenched Gaussian random potential: a time-reversal-symmetry-preserving field-theoretic approach

We develop a field-theoretic perturbation method preserving the fluctuation–dissipation relation (FDR) for the dynamics of the density fluctuations of a noninteracting colloidal gas plunged in a quenched Gaussian random field. It is based on an expansion about the Brownian noninteracting gas and can be considered and justified as a low-disorder or high-temperature expansion. The first-order bare theory yields the same memory integral as the mode-coupling theory (MCT) developed for (ideal) fluids in random environments, apart from the bare nature of the correlation functions involved. It predicts an ergodic dynamical behavior for the relaxation of the density fluctuations, in which the memory kernels and correlation functions develop long-time algebraic tails. An FDR-consistent renormalized theory is also constructed from the bare theory. It is shown to display a dynamic ergodic–nonergodic transition similar to the one predicted by the MCT at the level of the density fluctuations, but, at variance with the MCT, the transition does not fully carry over to the self-diffusion, which always reaches normal diffusive behavior at long time, in agreement with known rigorous results.

Density classification performance and ergodicity of the Gacs-Kurdyumov-Levin cellular automaton model IV.

Almost four decades ago, Gacs, Kurdyumov, and Levin introduced three different cellular automata to investigate whether one-dimensional nonequilibrium interacting particle systems are capable of displaying phase transitions, and, as a byproduct, they introduced the density classification problem (the ability to classify arrays of symbols according to their initial density) in the cellular automata literature. Their model II became a well-known model in theoretical computer science and statistical mechanics. The other two models, however, did not receive much attention. Here we characterize the density classification performance of Gacs, Kurdyumov, and Levin's model IV, a four-state cellular automaton with three absorbing states-only two of which are attractive-by numerical simulations. We show that model IV compares well with its sibling model II in the density classification task: the additional states slow down the convergence to the majority state but confer a slight advantage in classification performance. We also show that, unexpectedly, initial states diluted in one of the nonclassifiable states are more easily classified. The performance of model IV under the influence of noise was also investigated, and we found signs of an ergodic-nonergodic phase transition at some small finite positive level of noise, although the evidence is not entirely conclusive. We set an upper bound on the critical point for the transition, if any.

Ergodic-nonergodic transition in tapped granular systems: The role of persistent contacts

Static granular packs have been studied in the last three decades in the frame of a modified equilibrium statistical mechanics that assumes ergodicity as a basic postulate. The canonical example on which this framework is tested consists in the series of static configurations visited by a granular column subjected to taps. By analyzing the response of a realistic model of grains, we demonstrate that volume and stress variables visit different regions of the phase space at low tap intensities in different realizations of the experiment. We show that the tap intensity beyond which sampling by tapping becomes ergodic coincides with the forcing necessary to break all particle-particle contacts during each tap. These results imply that the well-known "reversible" branch of tapped granular columns is only valid at relatively high tap intensities.Received: 2 November 2015, Accepted: 22 December 2015; Edited by: C. S. O'Hern; Reviewed by: A. Baule, Queen Mary University of London, UK.; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4279/PIP.080001Cite as: P A Gago, D. Maza, L A Pugnaloni, Papers in Physics 8, 080001 (2016)This paper, by P A Gago, D. Maza, L A Pugnaloni, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.

Qualitatively different collective and single-particle dynamics in a supercooled liquid.

The equations of fluctuating nonlinear hydrodynamics for a two component mixture are obtained with a proper choice of slow variables which correspond to the conservation laws in the system. Using these nonlinear equations we construct the basic equations of the mode coupling theory (MCT) and consequent ergodic-nonergodic (ENE) transition in a binary mixture. The model is also analyzed in the one component limit of the mixture to study the dynamics of a tagged particle in the sea of identical particles. According to the existing MCT, dynamics of the single-particle correlation is slaved to that of the collective density fluctuations and, hence, both correlations freeze simultaneously at the ENE transition. We show here from a nonperturbative approach that at the ENE transition, characterized by the freezing of the long time limit of the dynamic correlation of collective density fluctuations to a nonzero value, the tagged-particle correlation still decays to zero. Our result implies that the point at which simulation or experimental data of the self-diffusion constant extrapolate to zero would not correspond to the ENE transition of simple MCT.

Numerical study of long-time dynamics and ergodic-nonergodic transitions in dense simple fluids.

Since the mid-1980s, mode-coupling theory (MCT) has been the de facto theoretic description of dense fluids and the transition from the fluid state to the glassy state. MCT, however, is limited by the approximations used in its construction and lacks an unambiguous mechanism to institute corrections. We use recent results from a new theoretical framework--developed from first principles via a self-consistent perturbation expansion in terms of an effective two-body potential--to numerically explore the kinetics of systems of classical particles, specifically hard spheres governed by Smoluchowski dynamics. We present here a full solution for such a system to the kinetic equation governing the density-density time correlation function and show that the function exhibits the characteristic two-step decay of supercooled fluids and an ergodic-nonergodic transition to a dynamically arrested state. Unlike many previous numerical studies--and in stark contrast to experiment--we have access to the full time and wave-number range of the correlation function with great precision and are able to track the solution unprecedentedly close to the transition, covering nearly 15 decades in scaled time. Using asymptotic approximation techniques analogous to those developed for MCT, we fit the solution to predicted forms and extract critical parameters. We find complete qualitative agreement with known glassy behavior (e.g. power-law divergence of the α-relaxation time scale in the ergodic phase and square-root growth of the glass form factors in the nonergodic phase), as well as some limited quantitative agreement [e.g. the transition at packing fraction η*=0.60149761(10)], consistent with previous static solutions under this theory and with comparable colloidal suspension experiments. However, most importantly, we establish that this new theory is able to reproduce the salient features seen in other theories, experiments, and simulations but has the advantages of being derived from first principles and possessing a clear mechanism for making systematic corrections.

Renormalized dynamics of the Dean-Kawasaki model.

We study the model of a supercooled liquid for which the equation of motion for the coarse-grained density ρ(x,t) is the nonlinear diffusion equation originally proposed by Dean and Kawasaki, respectively, for Brownian and Newtonian dynamics of fluid particles. Using a Martin-Siggia-Rose (MSR) field theory we study the renormalization of the dynamics in a self-consistent form in terms of the so-called self-energy matrix Σ. The appropriate model for the renormalized dynamics involves an extended set of field variables {ρ,θ}, linked through a nonlinear constraint. The latter incorporates, in a nonperturbative manner, the effects of an infinite number of density nonlinearities in the dynamics. We show that the contributing element of Σ which renormalizes the bare diffusion constant D(0) to D(R) is same as that proposed by Kawasaki and Miyazima [Z. Phys. B Condens. Matter 103, 423 (1997)]. D(R) sharply decreases with increasing density. We consider the likelihood of a ergodic-nonergodic (ENE) transition in the model beyond a critical point. The transition is characterized by the long-time limit of the density correlation freezing at a nonzero value. From our analysis we identify an element of Σ which arises from the above-mentioned nonlinear constraint and is key to the viability of the ENE transition. If this self-energy would be zero, then the model supports a sharp ENE transition with D(R)=0 as predicted by Kawasaki and Miyazima. With the full model having nonzero value for this self-energy, the density autocorrelation function decays to zero in the long-time limit. Hence the ENE transition is not supported in the model.

Ergodic–Nonergodic Transition Induced by Non-Gaussian Noise

The ergodic behavior of a system subjected to both internal thermal and external non thermal noises has been studied, by using the Khinchin theorem. For the internal noise we have considered Gaussian white noise but the external noise non-Gaussian in characteristic. We discuss the process which is either free, or takes place in a bounded potential landscape. In a force-free case, the system is ergodic for q ≤ 1, whereas for q > 1 the ergodicity is breakdown. An ergodic–nonergodic transition is found at a critical value q = 1. After adding an external bounded potential, the ergodicity for q > 1 is recovered, which is the characteristic behavior of nonergodic Brownian motion of class-I. Furthermore, we compare our results with the ergodicity definition and Lee’s condition to discuss applicability of the latter within non-Gaussian Brownian dynamics.

Equilibrium dynamics of the Dean-Kawasaki equation: Mode-coupling theory and its extension

We extend a previously proposed field-theoretic self-consistent perturbation approach for the equilibrium dynamics of the Dean-Kawasaki equation presented in [Kim and Kawasaki, J. Stat. Mech. (2008) P02004]. By taking terms missing in the latter analysis into account we arrive at a set of three new equations for correlation functions of the system. These correlations involve the density and its logarithm as local observables. Our new one-loop equations, which must carefully deal with the noninteracting Brownian gas theory, are more general than the historic mode-coupling one in that a further approximation corresponding to Gaussian density fluctuations leads back to the original mode-coupling equation for the density correlations alone. However, without performing any further approximation step, our set of three equations does not feature any ergodic-nonergodic transition, as opposed to the historical mode-coupling approach.

Power-law Decay and the Ergodic–Nonergodic Transition in Simple Fluids

It is well known that mode coupling theory (MCT) leads to a two-step power-law time decay in dense simple fluids. We show that much of the mathematical machinery used in the MCT analysis can be taken over to the analysis of the systematic theory developed in the Fundamental Theory of Statistical Particle Dynamics (Mazenko in Phys Rev E 81(6):061102, 2010). We show how the power-law exponents can be computed in the second-order approximation where we treat hard-sphere fluids with statics described by the Percus–Yevick solution.

Tuning interaction strength leads to an ergodic-nonergodic transition of quantum correlations in the anisotropic Heisenberg spin model

We investigate the time dynamics of quantum correlations of the anisotropic Heisenberg model in a time-dependent magnetic field in one-dimensional, ladder, and two-dimensional lattices. We find that quantum correlation measures in the entanglement-separability paradigm are ergodic in these systems irrespective of system parameters. However, information-theoretic quantum correlation measures can also be nonergodic and exhibit a transition from nonergodic to ergodic behavior with the change of interaction strength in the direction of the magnetic field. We also observe that the transition point changes drastically as we go from one-dimensional and ladder lattices to the two-dimensional one.

Newtonian Kinetic Theory and the Ergodic-Nonergodic Transition

In a recent work we have discussed how kinetic theory, the statistics of classical particles obeying Newtonian dynamics, can be formulated as a field theory. The field theory can be organized to produce a self-consistent perturbation theory expansion in an effective interaction potential. In the present work we use this development for investigating ergodic-nonergodic (ENE) transitions in dense fluids. The theory is developed in terms of a core problem spanned by the variables $\rho$, the number density, and $B$, a response density. We set up the perturbation theory expansion for studying the self-consistent model which gives rise to a ENE transition. Our main result is that the low-frequency dynamics near the ENE transition is the same for Smoluchowski and Newtonian dynamics. This is true despite the fact that term by term in a density expansion the results for the two dynamics are fundamentally different.

Field Theoretic Formulation of Kinetic Theory: Basic Development

We show how kinetic theory, the statistics of classical particles obeying Newtonian dynamics, can be formulated as a field theory. The field theory can be organized to produce a self-consistent perturbation theory expansion in an effective interaction potential. The need for a self-consistent approach is suggested by our interest in investigating ergodic-nonergodic transitions in dense fluids. The formal structure we develop has been implemented in detail for the simpler case of Smoluchowski dynamics. One aspect of the approach is the identification of a core problem spanned by the variables \rho the number density and B a response density. In this paper we set up the perturbation theory expansion with explicit development at zeroth and first order. We also determine all of the cumulants in the noninteracting limit among the core variables \rho and B.

Loss of thermodynamic stability in amorphous materials

The primary relaxation dynamics near the glass transformation temperature Tg exhibits universal features in all glass formers with two-level tunneling states (Low Temp. Phys. 35, 282 (2009)). Researchers have long sought the signature of an underlying “true” ergodic-nonergodic transition at a certain thermodynamic instability temperature Te. Here the relaxation timescale for glass-forming materials is analyzed using a self-consistent thermodynamic cluster model in combination with the concept of cluster percolation. The ergodic hypothesis is violated near a crossover from Gaussian to non-Gaussian (Poisson) cluster-volume fluctuations associated with finite-size fractal-cluster distributions. The transition of compact-structured “ergodic” clusters into hole-like glassy nanoclusters is attributed to critical-size thermal fluctuations. An ergodic-nonergodic phase diagram with Te is constructed in a model-independent form in terms of the glass fragility parameter for organic and inorganic liquids and amorphous solids. In all cases, the ergodic-instability temperature is below and close to the glass transition temperature, and the distance between the two characteristic temperatures decreases with increasing fragility of the material.

Time-dependent correlations in a supercooled liquid from nonlinear fluctuating hydrodynamics

We solve numerically the equations of nonlinear fluctuating hydrodynamics (NFH). A coarse graining of the density field is applied at each time step to avoid instabilities which otherwise plague the algorithm at long times. The equilibrium correlation of the density fluctuations at different times obtained directly from the solutions of the NFH equations are shown here to be in quantitative agreement with corresponding molecular dynamics simulation data. Low-order perturbative treatment of the these NFH equations obtains the mode coupling model. The latter has been widely studied for understanding the slow dynamics characteristic of the supercooled state. A crucial aspect of this theory is a rounded version of a possible ergodic-nonergodic transition in the supercooled liquid at a temperature T(c) between melting point T(m) and the glass transition temperature T(g). In the present work we demonstrate numerically the role of strongly coupled density fluctuations in giving rise to slow dynamics and how the 1/ρ nonlinearity in the NFH equations of motion is essential in restoring the ergodic behavior in the liquid. The relaxation data indicate that at moderate supercooling near T(c), the time temperature superposition holds. The relaxation gets increasingly stretched with increased supercooling. The relaxation time τ shows an initial power-law divergence approaching a transition temperature T(c) generally identified as the mode coupling temperature. From the direct solutions we obtain a value for T(c) much lower than that typically estimated from solution of low-order integral equations of mode coupling theory. This is in agreement with the trend seen in computer simulations.

Smoluchowski dynamics and the ergodic-nonergodic transition

We use the recently introduced theory for the kinetics of systems of classical particles to investigate systems driven by Smoluchowski dynamics. We investigate the existence of ergodic-nonergodic (ENE) transitions near the liquid-glass transition. We develop a self-consistent perturbation theory in terms of an effective two-body potential and work to second order in this potential. At second order, we have an explicit relationship between the static structure factor and the effective potential and choose the static structure factor in the case of hard spheres to be given by the solution of the Percus-Yevick approximation for hard spheres. Then, using the analytically determined ENE equation for the ergodicity function, we find an ENE transition for packing fraction η greater than a critical value η(*)=0.76, which is physically unaccessible. The existence of a linear fluctuation-dissipation theorem in the problem is shown and used to great advantage.

Fundamental theory of statistical particle dynamics

We present a fundamental theory for the kinetics of systems of classical particles. The theory represents a unification of kinetic theory, Brownian motion, and field theory. It is self-consistent and is the dynamic generalization of the functional theory of fluids in equilibrium. This gives one a powerful tool for investigating the existence of ergodic-nonergodic transitions near the liquid-glass transition.

Density nonlinearities in field theories for a toy model of fluctuating nonlinear hydrodynamics of supercooled liquids

We study a zero-dimensional version of the fluctuating nonlinear hydrodynamics (FNH) of supercooled liquids originally investigated by Das and Mazenko (DM) [Shankar P. Das and Gene F. Mazenko Phys. Rev. A 34, 2265 (1986)]. The time-dependent density-like and momentum-like variables are introduced with no spatial degrees of freedom in this toy model. The structure of nonlinearities takes the similar form to the original FNH, which allows one to study in a simpler setting the issues raised recently regarding the field theoretical approaches to glass forming liquids. We study the effects of density nonlinearities on the time evolution of correlation and response functions by developing field theoretic formulations in two different ways: first by following the original prescription of DM and then by constructing a dynamical action which possesses a linear time-reversal symmetry as proposed recently. We show explicitly that, at the one-loop order of the perturbation theory, the DM-type field theory does not support a sharp ergodic-nonergodic transition, while the other admits one. The simple nature of the toy model in the DM formulation allows us to develop numerical solutions to a complete set of coupled dynamical equations for the correlation and response functions at the one-loop order.