Breitenlohner-Freedman Bound on Hyperbolic Tilings.

We establish how the Breitenlohner-Freedman (BF) bound is realized on tilings of two-dimensional Euclidean Anti-de Sitter space. For the continuum, the BF bound states that on Anti-de Sitter spaces, fluctuation modes remain stable for small negative mass squared m^{2}. This follows from a real and positive total energy of the gravitational system. For finite cutoff ϵ, we solve the Klein-Gordon equation numerically on regular hyperbolic tilings. When ϵ→0, we find that the continuum BF bound is approached in a manner independent of the tiling. We confirm these results via simulations of a hyperbolic electric circuit. Moreover, we propose a novel circuit including active elements that allows us to further scan values of m^{2} above the BF bound.

Sinc noise for the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation.

In this paper we study the one-dimensional Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation with correlated noise by field-theoretic dynamic renormalization-group techniques. We focus on spatially correlated noise where the correlations are characterized by a sinc profile in Fourier space with a certain correlation length ξ. The influence of this correlation length on the dynamics of the KPZ equation is analyzed. It is found that its large-scale behavior is controlled by the standard KPZ fixed point, i.e., in this limit the KPZ system forced by sinc noise with arbitrarily large but finite correlation length ξ behaves as if it were excited by pure white noise. A similar result has been found by Mathey et al. [S. Mathey et al., Phys. Rev. E 95, 032117 (2017)2470-004510.1103/PhysRevE.95.032117] for a spatial noise correlation of Gaussian type (∼e^{-x^{2}/2ξ^{2}}), using a different method. These two findings together suggest that the KPZ dynamics is universal with respect to the exact noise structure, provided the noise correlation length ξ is finite.

Phase transition in an exactly solvable reaction-diffusion process.

We study a nonconserved one-dimensional stochastic process which involves two species of particles A and B. The particles diffuse asymmetrically and react in pairs as A∅↔AA↔BA↔A∅ and B∅↔BB↔AB↔B∅. We show that the stationary state of the model can be calculated exactly by using matrix product techniques. The model exhibits a phase transition at a particular point in the phase diagram which can be related to a condensation transition in a particular zero-range process. We determine the corresponding critical exponents and provide a heuristic explanation for the unusually strong corrections to scaling seen in the vicinity of the critical point.

Strong fluctuation theorem for nonstationary nonequilibrium systems.

We present a finite-time detailed fluctuation theorem of the form P̃(ΔS(env))=e(ΔS(env))P̃(-ΔS(env)) for an appropriately weighted probability density P̃(ΔS(env)) of the external entropy production in the environment ΔS(env). The fluctuation theorem is valid for nonequilibrium systems with constant rates starting with an arbitrary initial probability distribution. We discuss the implication of this relation for the case of a temperature quench in classical equilibrium systems. The fluctuation theorem is tested numerically for a Markov jump process with six states and for a surface growth model.

Fixed-energy sandpiles belong generically to directed percolation.

Fixed-energy sandpiles with stochastic update rules are known to exhibit a nonequilibrium phase transition from an active phase into infinitely many absorbing states. Examples include the conserved Manna model, the conserved lattice gas, and the conserved threshold transfer process. It is believed that the transitions in these models belong to an autonomous universality class of nonequilibrium phase transitions, the so-called Manna class. Contrarily, the present numerical study of selected (1+1)-dimensional models in this class suggests that their critical behavior converges to directed percolation after very long time, questioning the existence of an independent Manna class.

Dynamic wetting with two competing adsorbates.

We study the dynamic properties of a model for wetting with two competing adsorbates on a planar substrate. The two species of particles have identical properties and repel each other. Starting with a flat interface one observes the formation of homogeneous droplets of the respective type separated by nonwet regions where the interface remains pinned. The wet phase is characterized by slow coarsening of competing droplets. Moreover, in 2+1 dimensions an additional line of continuous phase transition emerges in the bound phase, which separates an unordered phase from an ordered one. The symmetry under interchange of the particle types is spontaneously broken in this region and finite systems exhibit two metastable states, each dominated by one of the species. The critical properties of this transition are analyzed by numeric simulations.

Space representation of stochastic processes with delay.

We show that a time series x(t) evolving by a nonlocal update rule x(t) =f (x(t-n),x(t-k)) with two different delays k < n can be mapped onto a local process in two dimensions with special time-delayed boundary conditions, provided that n and k are coprime. For certain stochastic update rules exhibiting a nonequilibrium phase transition, this mapping implies that the critical behavior does not depend on the short delay k . In these cases, the autocorrelation function of the time series is related to the critical properties of the corresponding two-dimensional model.

Agglomeration of oppositely charged particles in nonpolar liquids.

We study the aggregation of insulating electrically charged spheres suspended in a nonpolar liquid. Regarding the van der Waals interaction as an irreversible sticking force, we are especially interested in the charge distribution after aggregation. Solving the special case of two oppositely charged particles exactly, it is shown that the surface charges either recombine or form a residual dipole, depending on the initial condition. The theoretical findings are compared to numerical results from Monte Carlo simulations.

Macroscopic diagnostics of microscopic friction phenomena.

We show that the static friction force which must be overcome to render a sticking contact sliding is reduced if an external torque is also exerted. As a test system we study a planar disk lying on a horizontal flat surface. We perform experiments and compare with analytical results to find that the coupling between static friction force and torque is nontrivial: It is not determined by the Coulomb friction laws alone, instead it depends on the microscopic details of friction. Hence, we conclude that the macroscopic experiment presented here reveals details about the microscopic processes lying behind friction.

Epidemic processes with immunization.

We study a model of directed percolation (DP) with immunization, i.e., with different probabilities for the first infection and subsequent infections. The immunization effect leads to an additional non-Markovian term in the corresponding field theoretical action. We consider immunization as a small perturbation around the DP fixed point in d<6, where the non-Markovian term is relevant. The immunization causes the system to be driven away from the neighborhood of the DP critical point. In order to investigate the dynamical critical behavior of the model, we consider the limits of low and high first-infection rate, while the second-infection rate remains constant at the DP critical value. Scaling arguments are applied to obtain an expression for the survival probability in both limits. The corresponding exponents are written in terms of the critical exponents for ordinary DP and DP with a wall. We find that the survival probability does not obey a power-law behavior, decaying instead as a stretched exponential in the low first-infection probability limit and to a constant in the high first-infection probability limit. The theoretical predictions are confirmed by optimized numerical simulations in 1+1 dimensions.

Epidemic spreading with immunization and mutations.

The spreading of infectious diseases with and without immunization of individuals can be modeled by stochastic processes that exhibit a transition between an active phase of epidemic spreading and an absorbing phase, where the disease dies out. In nature, however, the transmitted pathogen may also mutate, weakening the effect of immunization. In order to study the influence of mutations, we introduce a model that mimics epidemic spreading with immunization and mutations. The model exhibits a line of continuous phase transitions and includes the general epidemic process (GEP) and directed percolation (DP) as special cases. Restricting to perfect immunization in two spatial dimensions, we analyze the phase diagram and study the scaling behavior along the phase transition line as well as in the vicinity of the GEP point. We show that mutations lead generically to a crossover from the GEP to DP. Using standard scaling arguments, we also predict the form of the phase transition line close to the GEP point. The protection gained by immunization is vitally decreased by the occurrence of mutations.

Logarithmic roughening in a growth process with edge evaporation.

Roughening transitions are often characterized by unusual scaling properties. As an example we investigate the roughening transition in a solid-on-solid growth process with edge evaporation [U. Alon, M. Evans, H. Hinrichsen, and D. Mukamel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 2746 (1996)], where the interface is known to roughen logarithmically with time. Performing high-precision simulations we find appropriate scaling forms for various quantities. Moreover we present a simple approximation explaining why the interface roughens logarithmically.

Epitaxial growth with pulsed deposition: submonolayer scaling and Villain instability.

It has been observed experimentally that under certain conditions, pulsed laser deposition (PLD) produces smoother surfaces than ordinary molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). So far, the mechanism leading to the improved quality of surfaces in PLD is not yet fully understood. In the present work, we investigate the physical properties of a simple model for PLD, in which the transient mobility of adatoms and diffusion along edges is neglected. Analyzing the crossover from MBE to PLD, the scaling properties of the time-dependent nucleation density as well as the influence of Ehrlich-Schwoebel barriers, we find that there is indeed a range of parameters, where the surface quality in PLD is better than in MBE. However, since the improvement is weak and occurs only in a small range of parameters we conclude that deposition in pulses alone cannot explain the experimentally observed smoothness of PLD-grown surfaces.

Phase transition in a triplet process.

We argue that the reaction-diffusion process 3A-->4A,3A-->2A exhibits a different type of continuous phase transition from an active into an absorbing phase. Because of the upper critical dimension d(c)> or =4/3 we expect the phase transition in 1+1 dimensions to be characterized by nontrivial fluctuation effects.

Multifractal current distribution in random-diode networks.

Recently it has been shown analytically that electric currents in a random-diode network are distributed in a multifractal manner [O. Stenull and H. K. Janssen, Europhys. Lett. 55, 691 (2001)]. In the present paper we investigate the multifractal properties of a random diode network at the critical point by numerical simulations. We analyze the currents running on a directed percolation cluster and confirm the field-theoretic predictions for the scaling behavior of moments of the current distribution. It is pointed out that a random diode network is a particularly good candidate for a possible experimental realization of directed percolation.