We study a model of two-dimensional interacting monomers which has two symmetric absorbing states and exhibits two kinds of phase transition; one is an order-disorder transition and the other is an absorbing phase transition. Our focus is around the order-disorder transition, and we investigate whether this transition is described by the critical exponents of the two-dimensional Ising model. By analyzing the relaxation dynamics of "staggered magnetization," the finite-size scaling, and the behavior of the magnetization in the presence of a symmetry-breaking field, we show that this model should belong to the Ising universality class. Our results along with the universality hypothesis support the idea that the order-disorder transition in two-dimensional models with two symmetric absorbing states is of the Ising universality class, contrary to the recent claim [K. Nam et al., J. Stat. Mech.: Theory Exp. (2011) L06001]. Furthermore, we illustrate that the Binder cumulant could be a misleading guide to the critical point in these systems.
Distinct works have claimed that spatial (quenched) disorder can suppress the discontinuous absorbing phase transitions. Conversely, the scenario for temporal disorder for discontinuous absorbing phase transitions is unknown. In order to shed some light in this direction, we tackle its effect in three bidimensional examples, presenting undoubtedly discontinuous absorbing phase transitions. Except in one case (to be explained further), the temporal disorder is introduced by allowing the control parameter to be time dependent $p\rightarrow p(t)$ according to a uniform distribution of mean $p_0$ …
The effect of quenched disorder on non-equilibrium phase transitions in the directed percolation universality class is studied by a strong disorder renormalization group approach and by density matrix renormalization group calculations. We show that for sufficiently strong disorder the critical behaviour is controlled by a strong disorder fixed point and in one dimension the critical exponents are conjectured to be exact: β=(3-\sqrt{5})/2 and ν_\perp=2. For disorder strengths outside the attractive region of this fixed point, disorder dependent critical exponents are detected. Existing numeric…
We study absorbing-state phase transitions in two-dimensional Voronoi-Delaunay (VD) random lattices with quenched coordination disorder. Quenched randomness usually changes the criticality and destroys discontinuous transitions in low-dimensional nonequilibrium systems. We performed extensive simulations of the Ziff-Gulari-Barshad (ZGB) model, and verified that the VD disorder does not change the nature of its discontinuous transition. Our results corroborate recent findings of Barghatti and Vojta [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 113}, 120602 (2014)] stating the irrelevance of topological disorder in a …
Via extensive Monte Carlo simulations along with systematic analyses of corrections to scaling, we estimate the order parameter critical exponent $β$ of absorbing phase transitions in systems with two symmetric absorbing states. The value of $β$ was conjectured to be $\frac{13}{14}\approx 0.93$ and Monte Carlo simulation studies in the literature have repeatedly reproduced values consistent with the conjecture. In this paper, we systematically estimate $β$ by analyzing the effective exponent after finding how strong corrections to scaling are. We show that the widely accepted numerical value o…
Elastic interfaces embedded in (quenched) random media exhibit meta-stability and stick-slip dynamics. These non-trivial dynamical features have been shown to be associated with cusp singularities of the coarse-grained disorder correlator. Here we show that annealed systems with many absorbing states and a conservation law but no quenched disorder exhibit identical cusps. On the other hand, similar non-conserved systems in the directed percolation class, are also shown to exhibit cusps, but of a different type. These results are obtained both by a recent method to explicitly measure disorder c…
The effects of quenched disorder on nonequilibrium phase transitions in the directed percolation universality class are revisited. Using a strong-disorder energy-space renormalization group, it is shown that for any amount of disorder the critical behavior is controlled by an infinite-randomness fixed point in the universality class of the random transverse-field Ising models. The experimental relevance of our results are discussed.
Recently one has stated that temporal disorder constitutes a relevant perturbation in absorbing phase transitions for all dimensions. However, its effect for systems other than the standard contact process (CP), its competition with other ingredients (e.g. particle diffusion) and other kinds of disorder (besides the standard types) are unknown. In order to shed some light in the above mentioned points, we investigate a variant of the usual CP, namely triplet annihilation model (TAM), in which the competition between triplet annihilation and single particle diffusion leads to an unusual phase d…
We investigate the effect of noise strength on the macroscopic ordering dynamics of systems with symmetric absorbing states. Using an explicit stochastic microscopic model, we present evidence for a phase transition in the coarsening dynamics, from an Ising-like to a voter-like behavior, as the noise strength is increased past a nontrivial critical value. By mapping to a thermal diffusion process, we argue that the transition arises due to locally-absorbing states being entered more readily in the high-noise regime, which in turn prevents surface tension from driving the ordering process.
An algebraic derivation is presented which yields the exact solution of the mean first-passage and mean residence times of a one-dimensional asymmetric random walk for quenched disorder. Two models of disorder are analytically treated. Both, absorbing-absorbing and reflecting-absorbing boundaries are considered. Particularly, the interplay between asymmetry and disorder is studied.
We analyze nonequilibrium lattice models with up-down symmetry and two absorbing states by mean-field approximations and numerical simulations in two and three dimensions. The phase diagram displays three phases: paramagnetic, ferromagnetic and absorbing. The transition line between the first two phases belongs to the Ising universality class and between the last two, to the direct percolation universality class. The two lines meet at the point describing the voter model and the size $\ell$ of the ferromagnetic phase vanishes with the distance $\varepsilon$ to the voter point as $\ell\sim\vare…
The multifractal characterization of the distribution over disorder of the mean first-passage time in a finite chain is revisited. Both, absorbing-absorbing and reflecting-absorbing boundaries are considered. Two models of dichotomic disorder are compared and our analysis clarifies the origin of the multifractality. The phenomenon is only present when the diffusion is anomalous.
On the basis of general considerations, we propose a Langevin equation accounting for critical phenomena occurring in the presence of two symmetric absorbing states. We study its phase diagram by mean-field arguments and direct numerical integration in physical dimensions. Our findings fully account for and clarify the intricate picture known so far from the aggregation of partial results obtained with microscopic models. We argue that the direct transition from disorder to one of two absorbing states is best described as a (generalized) voter critical point and show that it can be split into …
We explore the two-dimensional generalized contact process with two absorbing states by means of large-scale Monte-Carlo simulations. In part of the phase diagram, an infinitesimal creation rate of active sites between inactive domains is sufficient to take the system from the inactive phase to the active phase. The system therefore displays two different nonequilibrium phase transitions. The critical behavior of the generic transition is compatible with the generalized voter (GV) universality class, implying that the symmetry-breaking and absorbing transitions coincide. In contrast, the trans…
The Langevin description of systems with two symmetric absorbing states yields a phase diagram with three different phases (disordered and active, ordered and active, absorbing) separated by critical lines belonging to three different universality classes (generalized voter, Ising, and directed percolation). In this paper we present a microscopic spin model with two symmetric absorbing states that has the property that the model parameters can be varied in a continuous way. Our results, obtained through extensive numerical simulations, indicate that all features of the Langevin description are…
We investigate the behavior of nonequilibrium phase transitions under the influence of disorder that locally breaks the symmetry between two symmetrical macroscopic absorbing states. In equilibrium systems such "random-field" disorder destroys the phase transition in low dimensions by preventing spontaneous symmetry breaking. In contrast, we show here that random-field disorder fails to destroy the nonequilibrium phase transition of the one- and two-dimensional generalized contact process. Instead, it modifies the dynamics in the symmetry-broken phase. Specifically, the dynamics in the one-dim…
A zero temperature quench of the Ising model is known to lead to a frozen steady state on random and small world networks. We study such quenches on random scale free networks (RSF) and compare the scenario with that in the Barabási-Albert network (BA) and the Watts Strogatz (WS) addition type network. While frozen states are present in all the cases, the RSF shows an order-disorder phase transition of mean field nature as in the WS model as well as the existence of two absorbing phases separated by an active phase. The WS network also shows an active-absorbing (A-A) phase transition occurring…
Quenched disorder - in the sense of the Harris criterion - is generally a relevant perturbation at an absorbing state phase transition point. Here using a strong disorder renormalization group framework and effective numerical methods we study the properties of random fixed points for systems in the directed percolation universality class. For strong enough disorder the critical behavior is found to be controlled by a strong disorder fixed point, which is isomorph with the fixed point of random quantum Ising systems. In this fixed point dynamical correlations are logarithmically slow and the s…
Quenched disorder affects significantly the behavior of phase transitions. The Imry-Ma-Aizenman-Wehr-Berker argument prohibits first-order or discontinuous transitions and their concomitant phase coexistence in low-dimensional equilibrium systems in the presence of random fields. Instead, discontinuous transitions become rounded or even continuous once disorder is introduced. Here we show that phase coexistence and first-order phase transitions are also precluded in nonequilibrium low-dimensional systems with quenched disorder: discontinuous transitions in two-dimensional systems with absorbin…
Anomalous Criticality of Absorbing State Transition toward Jamming
National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University（南京大学固体微结构物理国家重点实验室）；Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures and School of Physics, Nanjing University（南京大学先进微结构协同创新中心及物理学院）
A rather simple random walk model on a one-dimensional lattice is put forward. The lattice as a whole switches randomly between two possible states which are spatially symmetric. Both lattice states are identical, but translated by one site with respect to each other, and consist of infinite arrays of absorbing sites separated by two non-absorbing sites. Exact explicit expressions for the long-time velocity and the effective diffusion coefficient are obtained and discussed. In particular, it is shown that the direction of the steady motion can be reversed by conveniently varying the values of …
We study the effects of distinct types of quenched disorder in the contact process (CP) with a competitive dynamics on bipartite sublattices. In the model, the particle creation depends on its first and second neighbors and the extinction increases according to the local density. The clean (without disorder) model exhibits three phases: inactive (absorbing), active symmetric and active asymmetric, where the latter exhibits distinct sublattice densities. These phases are separated by continuous transitions; the phase diagram is reentrant. By performing mean field analysis and Monte Carlo simula…
We present a numerical study on an interacting monomer-dimer model with nearest neighbor repulsion on a square lattice, which possesses two symmetric absorbing states. The model is observed to exhibit two nearby continuous transitions: the $Z_2$ symmetry-breaking order-disorder transition and the absorbing transition with directed percolation criticality. We find that the symmetry-breaking transition shows a non-Ising critical behavior, and that the absorbing phase becomes critical, in the sense that the critical decay of the dimer density observed at the absorbing transition persists even wit…
We study the order-disorder transition of the two dimensional interacting monomer-dimer model (IMD) which has two symmetric absorbing states. To be self-contained, we first estimate numerically the dynamic exponent $z$ of the two dimensional Ising model. From the relaxation dynamics of the magnetization at the critical point, we obtain $β/(νz) = 0.057~650(12)$, or $z = 2.168 26(45)$, where $β= \frac{1}{8}$ and $ν=1$ are exactly known exponents. We, then, compare the critical relaxation of the order parameter at the transition point of the IMD with that of the Ising model. We found that the cri…
We explore the effects that quenched disorder has on discontinuous nonequilibrium phase transitions into absorbing states. We focus our analysis on the Naming Game model, a nonequilibrium low-dimensional system with different absorbing states. The results obtained by means of the finite-size scaling analysis and from the study of the temporal dynamics of the density of active sites near the transition point evidence that the spatial quenched disorder does not destroy the discontinuous transition.
Disordered hyperuniformity is a description of hidden correlations in point distributions revealed by an anomalous suppression in fluctuations of local density at various coarse-graining length scales. In the absorbing phase of models exhibiting an active-absorbing state transition, this suppression extends up to a hyperuniform length scale that diverges at the critical point. Here, we demonstrate the existence of additional many-body correlations beyond hyperuniformity. These correlations are hidden in the higher moments of the probability distribution of the local density, and extend up to a…
We propose a general approach to study spin models with two symmetric absorbing states. Starting from the microscopic dynamics on a square lattice, we derive a Langevin equation for the time evolution of the magnetization field, that successfully explains coarsening properties of a wide range of nonlinear voter models and systems with intermediate states. We find that the macroscopic behavior only depends on the first derivatives of the spin-flip probabilities. Moreover, an analysis of the mean-field term reveals the three types of transitions commonly observed in these systems -generalized vo…
We study phase transitions in a long-range one-dimensional cellular automaton with two symmetric absorbing states. It includes and extends several other models, like the Ising and Domany-Kinzel ones. It is characterized by a competing ferromagnetic linear coupling and an antiferromagnetic nonlinear one. Despite its simplicity, this model exhibits an extremely rich phase diagram. We present numerical results and mean-field approximations.
In this work we study a 3-state ($+1$, $-1$, $0$) opinion model in the presence of noise and disorder. We consider pairwise competitive interactions, with a fraction $p$ of those interactions being negative (disorder). Moreover, there is a noise $q$ that represents the probability of an individual spontaneously change his opinion to the neutral state. Our aim is to study how the increase/decrease of the fraction of neutral agents affects the critical behavior of the system and the evolution of opinions. We derive analytical expressions for the order parameter of the model, as well as for the s…
A stochastic cellular automaton exhibiting parity conserving class transition has been investigated in the presence of quenched spatial disorder by large scale simulations. Numerical evidence has been found that weak disorder causes irrelevant perturbation for the universal behavior of the transition and the absorbing phase of this model. This opens up the possibility for experimental observation of the critical behavior of a nonequilibrium phase transition to absorbing state. For very strong disorder the model breaks up to blocks with exponential size distribution and continuously changing cr…
We study systems with two symmetric absorbing states, such as the voter model and variations of it, which have been broadly used as minimal neutral models in genetics, population ecology, sociology, etc. We analyze the effects of a key ingredient ineluctably present in most real applications: random-field-like quenched disorder. In accord with simulations and previous findings, coexistence between the two competing states/opinions turns out to be strongly favored by disorder in the standard voter model; actually, a disorder-induced phase transition is generated for any finite system size in th…
We study the dynamics of an interface (active domain) between different absorbing regions in models with two absorbing states in one dimension; probabilistic cellular automata models and interacting monomer-dimer models. These models exhibit a continuous transition from an active phase into an absorbing phase, which belongs to the directed Ising (DI) universality class. In the active phase, the interface spreads ballistically into the absorbing regions and the interface width diverges linearly in time. Approaching the critical point, the spreading velocity of the interface vanishes algebraical…
We study the absorbing-state phase transition in the one-dimensional contact process under the combined influence of spatial and temporal random disorders. We focus on situations in which the spatial and temporal disorders decouple. Couched in the language of epidemic spreading, this means that some spatial regions are, at all times, more favorable than others for infections, and some time periods are more favorable than others independent of spatial location. We employ a generalized Harris criterion to discuss the stability of the directed percolation universality class against such disorder.…
The absorbing-state transition in the three-dimensional contact process with and without quenched randomness is investigated by means of Monte-Carlo simulations. In the clean case, a reweighting technique is combined with a careful extrapolation of the data to infinite time to determine with high accuracy the critical behavior in the three-dimensional directed percolation universality class. In the presence of quenched spatial disorder, our data demonstrate that the absorbing-state transition is governed by an unconventional infinite-randomness critical point featuring activated dynamical scal…
We introduce and investigate an open many-body quantum system in which kinetically constrained coherent and dissipative processes compete. The form of the incoherent dissipative dynamics is inspired by that of epidemic spreading or cellular-automaton-based computation related to the density-classification problem. It features two non-fluctuating absorbing states as well as a $\mathcal{Z}_2$-symmetric point in parameter space. The coherent evolution is governed by a kinetically constrained $\mathcal{Z}_2$-symmetric many-body Hamiltonian which is related to the quantum XOR-Fredrickson-Andersen m…
We present a model of contact process on Domany-Kinzel cellular automata with a geometrical disorder. In the 1-D model, each site is connected to two nearest neighbors which are either on the left or the right. The system is always attracted to an absorbing state with algebraic decay of average density with a continuously varying complex exponent. The log-periodic oscillations are imposed over and above the usual power law and are clearly evident as p --> 1. This effect is purely due to an underlying topology because all sites have the same infection probability p and there is no disorder in t…
We study a contact process with creation at first- and second-neighbor sites and inhibition at first neighbors, in the form of an annihilation rate that increases with the number of occupied first neighbors. Mean-field theory predicts three phases: inactive (absorbing), active symmetric, and active asymmetric, the latter exhibiting distinct sublattice densities on a bipartite lattice. These phases are separated by continuous transitions; the phase diagram is reentrant. Monte Carlo simulations in two dimensions verify these predictions qualitatively, except for a first-neighbor creation rate of…
Understanding and probing phase transitions in non-equilibrium systems is an ongoing challenge in physics. A particular instance are phase transitions that occur between a non-fluctuating absorbing phase, e.g., an extinct population, and one in which the relevant order parameter, such as the population density, assumes a finite value. Here we report the observation of signatures of such a non-equilibrium phase transition in an open driven quantum system. In our experiment rubidium atoms in a quasi one-dimensional cold disordered gas are laser-excited to Rydberg states under so-called facilitat…
Recently some two-dimensional models with double symmetric absorbing states were shown to share the same critical behaviour that was called the voter universality class. We show, that for an absorbing-states Potts model with finite but further than nearest neighbour range of interactions the critical point is splitted into two critical points: one of the Ising type, and the other of the directed percolation universality class. Similar splitting takes place in the three-dimensional nearest-neighbour model.
In this paper we study the critical properties of the non-equilibrium phase transition of the Susceptible-Exposed-Infected model under the effects of long-range correlated time-varying environmental noise on the Bethe lattice. We show that temporal noise is perturbatively relevant changing the universality class from the (mean-field) dynamical percolation to the exotic infinite-noise universality class of the contact process model. Our analytical results are based on a mapping to the one-dimensional fractional Brownian motion with an absorbing wall and is confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations. …
Conway's cellular automaton Game of LIFE has been conjectured to be a critical (or quasicritical) dynamical system. This criticality is generally seen as a continuous order-disorder transition in cellular automata (CA) rule space. LIFE's mean-field return map predicts an absorbing vacuum phase ($ρ=0$) and an active phase density, with $ρ=0.37$, which contrasts with LIFE's absorbing states in a square lattice, which have a stationary density $ρ_{2D} \approx 0.03$. Here, we study and classify mean-field maps for $6144$ outer-totalistic CA and compare them with the corresponding behavior found in…
Based on the MFT arguments, a general description for discontinuous phase transitions in the presence temporal disorder is considered. Our analysis extends the recent findings [Phys. Rev. E {\bf 98}, 032129 (2018)] by considering other kinds of phase transitions beyond the absorbing ones. The theory is exemplified in one of the simplest (nonequilibrium) order disorder (discontinuous) phase transition with "up-down" $Z_2$ symmetry: the inertial majority vote (IMV) model for two kinds of temporal disorder. As for the APT case, the temporal disorder does not suppress the occurrence of discontinuo…
We study the continuous absorbing-state phase transition in the contact process on the Voronoi-Delaunay lattice. The Voronoi construction is a natural way to introduce quenched coordination disorder in lattice models. We simulate the disordered system using the quasistationary simulation method and determine its critical exponents and moment ratios. Our results suggest that the critical behavior of the disordered system is unchanged with respect to that on a regular lattice, i.e., that of directed percolation.
We investigate the critical properties of a one dimensional stochastic lattice model with n (permutation symmetric) absorbing states. We analyze the cases with $n \leq 4$ by means of the non-hermitian density matrix renormalization group. For n=1 and n=2 we find that the model is respectively in the directed percolation and parity conserving universality class, consistent with previous studies. For n=3 and n=4, the model is in the active phase in the whole parameter space and the critical point is shifted to the limit of one infinite reaction rate. We show that in this limit the dynamics of th…
We study the absorbing state phase transition in the contact process on the Weighted Planar Stochastic (WPS) Lattice. The WPS lattice is multifractal. Its dual network has a power-law degree distribution function and is also embedded in a bidimensional space. Moreover, it represents a novel way to introduce coordination disorder in lattice models. We investigated the critical behavior of the disordered system using extensive simulations. Our results show the critical behavior is distinct from that on a regular lattice, suggesting it belongs to a different universality class. We evaluate the ex…
We show that the two-dimensional voter model, usually considered to only be a marginal coarsening system, represents a broad class of models for which phase-ordering takes place without surface tension. We argue that voter-like growth is generically observed at order-disorder nonequilibrium transitions solely driven by interfacial noise between dynamically symmetric absorbing states.
We study nonequilibrium phase transitions of reaction-diffusion systems defined on randomly diluted lattices, focusing on the transition across the lattice percolation threshold. To develop a theory for this transition, we combine classical percolation theory with the properties of the supercritical nonequilibrium system on a finite-size cluster. In the case of the contact process, the interplay between geometric criticality due to percolation and dynamical fluctuations of the nonequilibrium system leads to a new universality class. The critical point is characterized by ultraslow activated dy…
We study the collective dynamics of repulsive self-propelled particles. The particles are governed by coupled equations of motion that include polar self-propulsion, damping of velocity and of polarity, repulsive particle-particle interaction, and deterministic dynamics. Particle dynamics simulations show that the collective coherent motion with large density fluctuations spontaneously emerges from a disordered, isotropic state. In the parameter region where the rotational damping of polarity is strong, the systems undergoes an abrupt shift to the absorbing ordered state after a waiting period…
We develop a general theory for discontinuous non-equilibrium phase transitions into an absorbing state in the presence of temporal disorder. We focus in two paradigmatic models for discontinuous transitions: the quadratic contact process (in which activation is only spread when two nearest- neighbor sites are both active) and the contact process with long-range interactions. Using simple stability arguments (supported by Monte Carlo simulations), we show that temporal disorder does not destroy the discontinuous transition in the former model. For the latter one, the first-order transition is …
We present a model which displays Griffiths phase i.e. algebraic decay of density with continuously varying exponent in the absorbing phase. In active phase, the memory of initial conditions is lost with continuously varying complex exponent in this model. This is 1-D model where fraction r of sites obey rules leading to directed percolation (DP) class and the rest evolve according to rules leading to compact directed percolation (CDP) class. For infection probability $p < p_c$, the fraction of active sites $ρ(t) = 0$ asymptotically. For $p > p_c$, $ρ(infty) > 0$. At $p = p_c$, $ρ(t)$, the sur…
We study the nonequilibrium phase transition in the two-dimensional contact process on a randomly diluted lattice by means of large-scale Monte-Carlo simulations for times up to $10^{10}$ and system sizes up to $8000 \times 8000$ sites. Our data provide strong evidence for the transition being controlled by an exotic infinite-randomness critical point with activated (exponential) dynamical scaling. We calculate the critical exponents of the transition and find them to be universal, i.e., independent of disorder strength. The Griffiths region between the clean and the dirty critical points exhi…
The effect of temporal disorder on systems with up-down Z2 symmetry is studied. In particular, we analyze two well-known families of phase transitions: the Ising and the generalized voter universality classes, and scrutinize the consequences of placing them under fluctuating global conditions. We observe that variability of the control parameter induces in both classes "Temporal Griffiths Phases" (TGP). These recently-uncovered phases are analogous to standard Griffiths Phases appearing in systems with quenched spatial disorder, but where the roles of space and time are exchanged. TGPs are cha…
We investigate 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 demonstrate that the phase transition of the one-dimensional generalized contact process persists in the presence of random field disorder. The dynamics in the symmetry-broken phase becomes ultraslow and is described by a Sinai walk of the …
We explore thermalization and quantum dynamics in a one-dimensional disordered SU(2)-symmetric Floquet model, where a many-body localized phase is prohibited by the non-abelian symmetry. Despite the absence of localization, we find an extended nonergodic regime at strong disorder where the system exhibits nonthermal behaviors. In the strong disorder regime, the level spacing statistics exhibit neither a Wigner-Dyson nor a Poisson distribution, and the spectral form factor does not show a linear-in-time growth at early times characteristic of random matrix theory. The average entanglement entro…
