We investigate the influence of time-varying environmental noise, i.e., temporal disorder, on the nonequilibrium phase transition of the contact process. Combining a real-time renormalization group, scaling theory, and large scale Monte-Carlo simulations in one and two dimensions, we show that the temporal disorder gives rise to an exotic critical point. At criticality, the effective noise amplitude diverges with increasing time scale, and the probability distribution of the density becomes infinitely broad, even on a logarithmic scale. Moreover, the average density and survival probability decay only logarithmically with time. This infinite-noise critical behavior can be understood as the temporal counterpart of infinite-randomness critical behavior in spatially disordered systems, but with exchanged roles of space and time. We also analyze the generality of our results, and we discuss potential experiments.
Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica（中央研究院物理研究所）；Department of Physics, Missouri University of Science and Technology（密苏里科技大学物理系）；Physics Division, National Center for Theoretical Sciences（国家理论科学中心物理学部）
The supercritical series expansion of the survival probability for the one-dimensional contact process in heterogeneous and disordered lattices is used for the evaluation of the loci of critical points and critical exponents $β$. The heterogeneity and disorder are modeled by considering binary regular and irregular lattices of nodes characterized by different recovery rates and identical transmission rates. Two analytical approaches based on Nested Padé approximants and Partial Differential approximants were used in the case of expansions with respect to two variables (two recovery rates) for …
The critical behavior of the contact process (CP) in heterogeneous periodic and weakly-disordered environments is investigated using the supercritical series expansion and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. Phase-separation lines and critical exponents $β$ (from series expansion) and $η$ (from MC simulations) are calculated. A general analytical expression for the locus of critical points is suggested for the weak-disorder limit and confirmed by the series expansion analysis and the MC simulations. Our results for the critical exponents show that the CP in heterogeneous environments remains in the …
We study the local persistence probability during non-stationary time evolutions in disordered contact processes with long-range interactions by a combination of the strong-disorder renormalization group (SDRG) method, a phenomenological theory of rare regions, and numerical simulations. We find that, for interactions decaying as an inverse power of the distance, the persistence probability tends to a non-zero limit not only in the inactive phase but also in the critical point. Thus, unlike in the contact process with short-range interactions, the persistence in the limit $t\to\infty$ is a dis…
I study the absorbing-state phase transition in the one-dimensional contact process with mobile disorder. In this model the dilution sites, though permanently inactive, diffuse freely, exchanging positions with the other sites, which host a basic contact process. Even though the disorder variables are not quenched, the critical behavior is affected: the critical exponents delta and z, the ratio beta/nu_perp and the moment ratio m= <rho^2>/rho^2 take values different from those of directed percolation, and appear to vary with the vacancy diffusion rate. While the survival probability starting f…
We study the nonequilibrium phase transition in the one-dimensional contact process with quenched spatial disorder by means of large-scale Monte-Carlo simulations for times up to $10^9$ and system sizes up to $10^7$ sites. In agreement with recent predictions of an infinite-randomness fixed point, our simulations demonstrate activated (exponential) dynamical scaling at the critical point. The critical behavior turns out to be universal, even for weak disorder. However, the approach to this asymptotic behavior is extremely slow, with crossover times of the order of $10^4$ or larger. In the Grif…
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 investigate the nonequilibrium phase transition in the disordered contact process in the presence of long-range spatial disorder correlations. These correlations greatly increase the probability for finding rare regions that are locally in the active phase while the bulk system is still in the inactive phase. Specifically, if the correlations decay as a power of the distance, the rare region probability is a stretched exponential of the rare region size rather than a simple exponential as is the case for uncorrelated disorder. As a result, the Griffiths singularities are enhanced and take a…
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…
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.
An asymmetric variant of the contact process where the activity spreads with different and independent random rates to the left and to the right is introduced. A real space renormalization scheme is formulated for model by means of which it is shown that the local asymmetry of spreading is irrelevant on large scales if the model is globally (statistically) symmetric. Otherwise, in the presence of a global bias in either direction, the renormalization method predicts two distinct phase transitions, which are related to the spreading of activity in and against the direction of the bias. The latt…
We investigate the nonequilibrium phase transition of the disordered contact process in five space dimensions by means of optimal fluctuation theory and Monte Carlo simulations. We find that the critical behavior is of mean-field type, i.e., identical to that of the clean five-dimensional contact process. It is accompanied by off-critical power-law Griffiths singularities whose dynamical exponent $z'$ saturates at a finite value as the transition is approached. These findings resolve the apparent contradiction between the Harris criterion which implies that weak disorder is renormalization-gro…
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…
The one-dimensional contact process with weak to intermediate quenched disorder in its transmission rates is investigated via quasi-stationary Monte Carlo simulation. We address the contested questions of both the nature of dynamical scaling, conventional or activated, as well as of universality of critical exponents by employing a scaling analysis of the distribution of lifetimes and the quasi-stationary density of infection. We find activated scaling to be the appropriate description for all disorder strengths considered. Critical exponents are disorder dependent and approach the values expe…
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 time-dependence of the local persistence probability during a non-stationary time evolution in the disordered contact process in $d=1,2$, and $3$ dimensions. We present a method for calculating the persistence with the strong-disorder renormalization group (SDRG) technique, which we then apply in the critical point analytically for $d=1$ and numerically for $d=2,3$. According to the results, the average persistence decays at late times as an inverse power of the logarithm of time, with a universal, dimension-dependent generalized exponent. For $d=1$, the distribution of sample-dep…
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 …
The contact process and the slightly different susceptible-infected-susceptible model are studied on long-range connected networks in the presence of random transition rates by means of a strong disorder renormalization group method and Monte Carlo simulations. We focus on the case where the connection probability decays with the distance $l$ as $p(l)\simeqβl^{-2}$ in one dimension. Here, the graph dimension of the network can be continuously tuned with $β$. The critical behavior of the models is found to be described by an infinite randomness fixed point which manifests itself in logarithmic …
The critical behavior of the contact process in disordered and periodic binary 2d-lattices is investigated numerically by means of Monte Carlo simulations as well as via an analytical approximation and standard mean field theory. Phase-separation lines calculated numerically are found to agree well with analytical predictions around the homogeneous point. For the disordered case, values of static scaling exponents obtained via quasi-stationary simulations are found to change with disorder strength. In particular, the finite-size scaling exponent of the density of infected sites approaches a va…
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 extinction of the contact process in lattice models with quenched disorder is analysed in the limit of small density of infected sites. It is shown that the problem in such a regime can be mapped to the quantum-mechanical one characterized by the Anderson Hamiltonian for an electron in a random lattice. It is demonstrated both analytically (self-consistent mean-field) and numerically (by direct diagonalization of the Hamiltonian and by means of cellular automata simulations) that disorder enhances the contact process given the mean values of random parameters are not influenced by disorder…
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…
Dynamical processes occurring on top of complex networks have become an exciting area of research. Quenched disorder plays a relevant role in general dynamical processes and phase transitions, but the effect of topological quenched disorder on the dynamics of complex networks has not been systematically studied so far. Here, we provide heuristic and numerical analyses of the contact process defined on some complex networks with topological disorder. We report on Griffiths phases and other rare region effects, leading rather generically to anomalously slow relaxation in generalized small-world …
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 show that generic, slow dynamics can occur in the contact process on complex networks with a tree-like structure and a superimposed weight pattern, in the absence of additional (non-topological) sources of quenched disorder. The slow dynamics is induced by rare-region effects occurring on correlated subspaces of vertices connected by large weight edges, and manifests in the form of a smeared phase transition. We conjecture that more sophisticated network motifs could be able to induce Griffiths phases, as a consequence of purely topological disorder.
We investigate how a clean continuous phase transition is affected by spatio-temporal disorder, i.e., by an external perturbation that fluctuates in both space and time. We derive a generalization of the Harris criterion for the stability of the clean critical behavior in terms of the space-time correlation function of the external perturbation. As an application, we consider diffusive disorder, i.e, an external perturbation governed by diffusive dynamics, and its effects on a variety of equilibrium and nonequilibrium critical points. We also discuss the relation between diffusive disorder and…
Biopolymers are characterized by heterogeneous interactions, and usually perform their biological tasks forming contacts within domains of limited size. Combining polymer theory with a replica approach, we study the scaling properties of the probability of contact formation in random heteropolymers as a function of their linear distance. It is found that close or above the theta--point, it is possible to define a contact probability which is typical (i.e. "self-averaging") for different realizations of the heterogeneous interactions, and which displays an exponential cut--off, dependent on tem…
We study the two-dimensional contact process (CP) with quenched disorder (DCP), and determine the static critical exponents beta and nu_perp. The dynamic behavior is incompatible with scaling, as applied to models (such as the pure CP) that have a continuous phase transition to an absorbing state. We find that the survival probability (starting with all sites occupied), for a finite-size system at critical, decays according to a power law, as does the off-critical density autocorrelation function. Thus the critical exponent nu_parallle, which governs the relaxation time, is undefined, since th…
The effect of increasing structural disorder on the distribution of contact forces P(f), inside three dimensional particle assemblies is systematically studied using computer simulations of model granular packings. Starting from a face-centred cubic array, where all contact forces are identical, an increasing number of defects is introduced into the assembly, after which the system is then allowed to relax into a new mechanically stable state. Three distinct protocols for imposing disorder are compared. A quantitative measure of the disorder is obtained from distributions of the coordination n…
Experiments measuring contact formation between a probe and quencher in disordered chains provide information on the fundamental dynamical timescales relevant to protein folding, but their interpretation usually relies on simplified one-dimensional (1D) diffusion models. Here, we use all-atom molecular simulations to capture both the time-scales of contact formation, as well as the scaling with the length of the peptide for tryptophan triplet quenching experiments. Capturing the experimental quenching times depends on the water viscosity, but more importantly on the configurational space explo…
Critical behavior of the contact process is studied in annealed scale-free networks by mapping it on the random walk problem. We obtain the analytic results for the critical scaling, using the event-driven dynamics approach. These results are confirmed by numerical simulations. The disorder fluctuation induced by the sampling disorder in annealed networks is also explored. Finally, we discuss over the discrepancy of the finite-size-scaling theory in annealed and quenched networks in spirit of the droplet size scale and the linking disorder fluctuation.
We study the distribution of dynamical quantities in various one-dimensional, disordered models the critical behavior of which is described by an infinite randomness fixed point. In the {\it disordered contact process}, the quenched survival probability $\mathcal{P}(t)$ defined in fixed random environments is found to show multi-scaling in the critical point, meaning that $\mathcal{P}(t)=t^{-δ}$, where the (environment and time-dependent) exponent $δ$ has a universal limit distribution when $t\to\infty$. The limit distribution is determined by the strong disorder renormalization group method a…
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 Contact Process has been studied on complex networks exhibiting different kinds of quenched disorder. Numerical evidence is found for Griffiths phases and other rare region effects, in Erd\H os Rényi networks, leading rather generically to anomalously slow (algebraic, logarithmic,...) relaxation. More surprisingly, it turns out that Griffiths phases can also emerge in the absence of quenched disorder, as a consequence of sole topological heterogeneity in networks with finite topological dimension. In case of scale-free networks, exhibiting infinite topological dimension, slow dynamics can …
We introduce a model for temporally disordered directed percolation in which the probability of spreading from a vertex $(t,x)$, where $t$ is the time and $x$ is the spatial coordinate, is independent of $x$ but depends on $t$. Using a very efficient algorithm we calculate low-density series for bond percolation on the directed square lattice. Analysis of the series yields estimates for the critical point $p_c$ and various critical exponents which are consistent with a continuous change of the critical parameters as the strength of the disorder is increased.
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 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…
Disordered viscoelastic materials are ubiquitous and exhibit fascinating invariant scaling properties. In a companion article, we have presented comprehensive new results for the critical behavior of the dynamic susceptibility of disordered elastic systems near the onset of rigidity. Here we provide additional details of the derivation of the singular scaling forms of the longitudinal response near both jamming and rigidity percolation. We then discuss global aspects associated with these forms, and make scaling collapse plots for both undamped and overdamped dynamics in both the rigid and flo…
Spatial models for spread of an epidemic may be mapped onto bond percolation. We point out that with disorder in the strength of contacts between individuals patchiness in the spread of the epidemic is very likely, and the criterion for epidemic outbreak depends strongly on the disorder because the critical region of the corresponding percolation model is broadened. In some networks the percolation threshold is zero if another kind of disorder is present, namely divergent fluctuations in the number of contacts. We give an example, a network with a well defined geography, where this is not nece…
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. …
We propose and study numerically a stochastic cellular automaton model for the dynamics of granular materials with temporal disorder representing random variation of the diffusion probability $1-μ(t)$ around threshold value $1-μ_0$ during the course of an avalanche. Combined with the slope threshold dynamics, the temporal disorder yields a series of secondary instabilities, resembling those in realistic granular slides. When the parameter $μ_0$ is lower than the critical value $μ_{0}^\star \approx 0.4$, the dynamics is dominated by occasional huge sandslides. For the range of values $μ_{0}^\st…
Disorder is an unavoidable ingredient of real systems. Spatial disorder generates Griffiths phases (GPs) which, in analogy to critical points, are characterized by a slow relaxation of the order parameter and divergences of quantities such as the susceptibility. However, these singularities appear in an extended region of the parameter space and not just at a (critical) point, i.e. there is generic scale invariance. Here, we study the effects of temporal disorder, focusing on systems with absorbing states. We show that for dimensions $d \geq 2$ there are Temporal Griffiths phases (TGPs) charac…
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…
The noise power spectra of spatially extended dynamical systems are investigated, using as a model the Complex Ginzburg-Landau equation with a stochastic term. Analytical and numerical investigations show that the spatial spectra of the ordered state are similar to Bose-Einstein distribution, showing 1/k^2 asymptotics in the long wavelength limit. The temporal noise spectra of the ordered state are obtained of 1/^alpha form, where alpha=2-D/2 with D the spatial dimension of the system.
Northwestern University（西北大学）；NSF-Simons National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology（NSF-西蒙斯生物理论与数学国家研究所）；Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems, Northwestern University（西北大学复杂系统研究所）；Department of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, Northwestern University（西北大学工程科学与应用数学系）
We study the epidemic spreading process following contact dynamics with heavy-tailed waiting time distributions. We show both analytically and numerically that the temporal heterogeneity of contact dynamics can significantly suppress the disease's transmissibility, hence the size of epidemic outbreak, obstructing the spreading process. Furthermore, when the temporal heterogeneity is strong enough, one obtains the vanishing transmissibility for any finite recovery time and regardless of underlying structure of contacts, the condition of which was derived.
Empirical temporal networks display strong heterogeneities in their dynamics, which profoundly affect processes taking place on these networks, such as rumor and epidemic spreading. Despite the recent wealth of data on temporal networks, little work has been devoted to the understanding of how such heterogeneities can emerge from microscopic mechanisms at the level of nodes and links. Here we show that long-term memory effects are present in the creation and disappearance of links in empirical networks. We thus consider a simple generative modeling framework for temporal networks able to incor…
