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Article
Random Fields at a Nonequilibrium Phase Transition
Physical Review Letters
  • Hatem Barghathi
  • Thomas Vojta, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Abstract

We study nonequilibrium phase transitions in the presence of disorder that locally breaks the symmetry between two equivalent macroscopic states. In low-dimensional equilibrium systems, such random-field disorder is known to have dramatic effects: it prevents spontaneous symmetry breaking and completely destroys the phase transition. In contrast, we show that the phase transition of the one-dimensional generalized contact process persists in the presence of random-field disorder. The ultraslow dynamics in the symmetry-broken phase is described by a Sinai walk of the domain walls between two different absorbing states. We discuss the generality and limitations of our theory, and we illustrate our results by large-scale Monte Carlo simulations.

Department(s)
Physics
Keywords and Phrases
  • Absorbing state,
  • Contact process,
  • Equilibrium systems,
  • Macroscopic state,
  • Monte Carlo Simulation,
  • Nonequilibrium phase transitions,
  • Random fields,
  • Spontaneous symmetry breaking,
  • Atomic physics,
  • Physics
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2012 American Physical Society (APS), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
10-1-2012
Publication Date
01 Oct 2012
Disciplines
Citation Information
Hatem Barghathi and Thomas Vojta. "Random Fields at a Nonequilibrium Phase Transition" Physical Review Letters Vol. 109 Iss. 17 (2012) p. 170603-1 - 170603-5 ISSN: 0031-9007
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/thomas-vojta/121/