Many driven systems alternate between bursts of activity and quiescence and can become trapped in an absorbing state, such as complete inactivity in reaction-diffusion processes or extinction in predator-prey dynamics. It is generally assumed that, conditioned on survival, their long-lived (quasi-stationary) behavior is unique and independent of the initial condition. We show this need not hold, even for memoryless Markov dynamics. When the configuration space fractures into multiple macroscopic communicating classes, where configurations can be reach from one another within a class but not across classes, the system retains a measurable memory of its preparation, which can directly affect the critical exponents near absorbing transitions. Using a minimal birth-death-diffusion model, we demonstrate that the quasi-stationary state is unique when birth processes are present, but becomes nonunique and initial-condition dependent when they are suppressed. This mechanism, arising from vanishing of inter-class escape-rate ratios in thermodynamic limit, challenges the conventional universality hypothesis and suggests possibility of history-dependent critical scaling in controlled lattice or colloidal systems with tunable particle-number.
We analyze numerically three different models exhibiting an absorbing phase transition. We focus on the finite-size scaling as well as the dynamical scaling behavior. An accurate determination of several critical exponents allows to validate certain hyperscaling relations. Using this hyperscaling relations it is possible to express the avalanche exponents of a self-organized critical system in terms of the ordinary exponents of a continuous absorbing phase transition.
Based on quasi-stationary distribution ideas, a general finite size scaling theory is proposed for discontinuous nonequilibrium phase transitions into absorbing states. Analogously to the equilibrium case, we show that quantities such as, response functions, cumulants, and equal area probability distributions, all scale with the volume, thus allowing proper estimates for the thermodynamic limit. To illustrate these results, five very distinct lattice models displaying nonequilibrium transitions -- to single and infinitely many absorbing states -- are investigated. The innate difficulties in an…
We analyse numerically the critical behavior of an absorbing phase transition in a conserved lattice gas in an external field. The external field is realized as a spontaneous creation of active particles which drives the system away from criticality. Nevertheless, the order parameter obeys certain scaling laws for sufficiently small external fields. These scaling laws are investigated and the corresponding exponents are determined in various dimensions ($D=2,3,4,5$). At the so-called upper critical dimension $D_{\text c}=4$ one has to modify the usual scaling laws by logarithmic corrections.
We analyse numerically the critical behavior of a conserved lattice gas which was recently introduced as an example of the new universality class of absorbing phase transitions with a conserved field [Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 1803 (2000)]. We determine the critical exponent of the order parameter as well as the critical exponent of the order parameter fluctuations in D=2,3,4,5 dimensions. A comparison of our results and those obtained from a mean-field approach and a field theory suggests that the upper critical dimension of the absorbing phase transition is four.
We consider two mean-field like models which belong to the universality class of absorbing phase transitions with a conserved field. In both cases we derive analytically the order parameter as function of the control parameter and of an external field conjugated to the order parameter. This allows us to calculate the universal scaling function of the mean-field behavior. The obtained universal function is in perfect agreement with recently obtained numerical data of the corresponding five and six dimensional models, showing that four is the upper critical dimension of this particular universal…
We investigate the scaling properties of phase transitions between survival and extinction (active-to-absorbing state phase transition, AAPT) in a model, that by itself belongs to the directed percolation (DP) universality class, interacting with a spatio-temporally fluctuating environment having its own non-trivial dynamics. We model the environment by (i) a randomly stirred fluid, governed by the Navier-Stokes (NS) equation, and (ii) a fluctuating surface, described either by the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) or the Edward-Wilkinson (EW) equations. We show, by using a one-loop perturbative field…
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…
We present generic scaling laws relating spreading critical exponents and avalanche exponents (in the sense of self-organized criticality) in general systems with absorbing states. Using these scaling laws we present a collection of the state-of-the-art exponents for directed percolation, dynamical percolation and other universality classes. This collection of results should help to elucidate the connections of self-organized criticality and systems with absorbing states. In particular, some non-universality in avalanche exponents is predicted for systems with many absorbing states.
I comment on the relation between two sampling methods for absorbing state models. It is shown that a certain ensemble without external field conditional to activity coincides with the unconditional ensemble for sufficiently small external field. The actual physical processes involved are identical and the derivation of the identity of the scaling behaviour relies on a single (established) scaling law. While the conditional ensemble by construction does not contain information about the system with large external field, it contains all information about the limit of vanishing external field an…
We study the active to absorbing phase transition (AAPT) in a simple two-component model system for a species and its mutant. We uncover the nontrivial critical scaling behavior and weak dynamic scaling near the AAPT that shows the significance of mutation and highlights the connection of this model with the well-known directed percolation universality class. Our model should be a useful starting point to study how mutation may affect extinction or survival of a species.
The well-established universality classes of absorbing critical phenomena are directed percolation (DP) and directed Ising (DI) classes. Recently, the pair contact process with diffusion (PCPD) has been investigated extensively and claimed to exhibit a new type of critical phenomena distinct from both DP and DI classes. Noticing that the PCPD possesses a long-term memory effect, we introduce a generalized version of the PCPD (GPCPD) with a parameter controlling the memory effect. The GPCPD connects the DP fixed point to the PCPD point continuously. Monte Carlo simulations show that the GPCPD d…
We study standard and higher-order birth-death processes on fully connected networks, within the perspective of large-deviation theory (also referred to as Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) method in some contexts). We obtain a general expression for the leading and next-to-leading terms of the stationary probability distribution of the fraction of "active" sites, as a function of parameters and network size $N$. We reproduce several results from the literature and, in particular, we derive all the moments of the stationary distribution for the $q$-susceptible-infected-susceptible ($q-SIS$) mode…
The phase transitions to absorbing states of the branching-annihilating reaction-diffusion processes mA --> (m+k)A, nA --> (n-l)A are studied systematically in one space dimension within a new family of models. Four universality classes of non-trivial critical behavior are found. This provides, in particular, the first evidence of universal scaling laws for pair and triplet processes.
The properties of the absorbing states of non-equilibrium models belonging to the conserved directed percolation universality class are studied. We find that at the critical point the absorbing states are hyperuniform, exhibiting anomalously small density fluctuations. The exponent characterizing the fluctuations is measured numerically, a scaling relation to other known exponents is suggested, and a new correlation length relating to this ordering is proposed. These results may have relevance to photonic band-gap materials.
The coupling of branching-annihilating random walks to a static field with a local conservation law is shown to change the scaling properties of their phase transitions to absorbing states. In particular, we find that DP-class transitions give rise to a new universality class distinct from that characterizing the depinning of the so-called linear interface model.
One of the most impressive features of continuous phase transitions is the concept of universality, that allows to group the great variety of different critical phenomena into a small number of universality classes. All systems belonging to a given universality class have the same critical exponents, and certain scaling functions become identical near the critical point. It is the aim of this work to demonstrate the usefulness of universal scaling functions for the analysis of non-equilibrium phase transitions. In order to limit the coverage of this article, we focus on a particular class of n…
We present a general scaling theory for the surface critical behavior of non-equilibrium systems with phase transitions into absorbing states. The theory allows for two independent surface exponents which satisfy generalized hyperscaling relations. As an application we study a generalized version of directed percolation with two absorbing states. We find two distinct surface universality classes associated with inactive and reflective walls. Our results indicate that the exponents associated with these two surface universality classes are closely connected.
We analyze numerically the critical behavior of an absorbing phase transition in the conserved transfer threshold process. We determined the steady state scaling behavior of the order parameter as a function of both, the control parameter and an external field, conjugated to the order parameter. The external field is realized as a spontaneous creation of active particles which drives the system away from criticality. The obtained results yields that the conserved transfers threshold process belongs to the universality class of absorbing phase transitions in a conserved field.
Fractional Brownian motion is a Gaussian process x(t) with zero mean and two-time correlations <x(t)x(s)> ~ t^{2H} + s^{2H} - |t-s|^{2H}, where H, with 0<H<1 is called the Hurst exponent. For H = 1/2, x(t) is a Brownian motion, while for H unequal 1/2, x(t) is a non-Markovian process. Here we study x(t) in presence of an absorbing boundary at the origin and focus on the probability density P(x,t) for the process to arrive at x at time t, starting near the origin at time 0, given that it has never crossed the origin. It has a scaling form P(x,t) ~ R(x/t^H)/t^H. Our objective is to compute the s…
Extensive simulations are performed to study the persistence behavior of a conserved lattice gas model exhibiting an absorbing phase transition from an active phase into an inactive phase. Both the global and the local persistence exponents are determined in two and higher dimensions. The local persistence exponent obeys a scaling relation involving the order parameter exponent of the absorbing phase transition. Furthermore we observe that the global persistence exponent exceeds its local counterpart in all dimensions in contrast to the known persistence behavior in reversible phase transition…
A conserved lattice gas with random neighbor hopping of active particles is introduced which exhibits a continuous phase transition from an active state to an absorbing non-active state. Since the randomness of the particle hopping breaks long range spatial correlations our model mimics the mean-field scaling behavior of the recently introduced new universality class of absorbing phase transitions with a conserved field. The critical exponent of the order parameter is derived within a simple approximation. The results are compared with those of simulations and field theoretical approaches.
We review the critical behavior of nonequilibrium systems, such as directed percolation (DP) and branching-annihilating random walks (BARW), which possess phase transitions into absorbing states. After reviewing the bulk scaling behavior of these models, we devote the main part of this review to analyzing the impact of walls on their critical behavior. We discuss the possible boundary universality classes for the DP and BARW models, which can be described by a general scaling theory which allows for two independent surface exponents in addition to the bulk critical exponents. Above the upper c…
We investigate a suggested path to self-organized criticality. Originally, this path was devised to "generate criticality" in systems displaying an absorbing-state phase transition, but closer examination of the mechanism reveals that it can be used for any continuous phase transition. We used the Ising model as well as the Manna model to demonstrate how the finite-size scaling exponents depend on the tuning of driving and dissipation rates with system size.Our findings limit the explanatory power of the mechanism to non-universal critical behavior.
It has been generally believed that hardcore interaction is irrelevant to absorbing type critical phenomena because the particle density is so low near an absorbing phase transition. We study the effect of hardcore interaction on the N species branching annihilating random walks with two offspring and report that hardcore interaction drastically changes the absorbing type critical phenomena in a nontrivial way. Through Langevin equation type approach, we predict analytically the values of the scaling exponents, $ν_{\perp} = 2, z = 2, α= 1/2, β= 2$ in one dimension for all N > 1. Direct numeric…
We construct and analyse a simple {\em reduced} model to study the effects of the interplay between a density undergoing an active-to-absorbing state phase transition (AAPT) and a fluctuating environment in the form of a broken symmetry mode coupled to the density field in any arbitrary dimension. We show, by using perturbative renormalisation group calculations, that {\em both} the effects of the environment on the density and the latter's feedback on the environment influence the ensuing universal scaling behaviour of the AAPT at its extinction transition. Phenomenological implications of ou…
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…
This review addresses recent developments in nonequilibrium statistical physics. Focusing on phase transitions from fluctuating phases into absorbing states, the universality class of directed percolation is investigated in detail. The survey gives a general introduction to various lattice models of directed percolation and studies their scaling properties, field-theoretic aspects, numerical techniques, as well as possible experimental realizations. In addition, several examples of absorbing-state transitions which do not belong to the directed percolation universality class will be discussed.…
Efficient and accurate integration of stochastic (partial) differential equations with multiplicative noise can be obtained through a split-step scheme, which separates the integration of the deterministic part from that of the stochastic part, the latter being performed by sampling exactly the solution of the associated Fokker-Planck equation. We demonstrate the computational power of this method by applying it to most absorbing phase transitions for which Langevin equations have been proposed. This provides precise estimates of the associated scaling exponents, clarifying the classification …
We consider systems whose steady-states exhibit a nonequilibrium phase transition from an active state to one -among an infinite number- absorbing state, as some control parameter is varied across a threshold value. The pair contact process, stochastic fixed-energy sandpiles, activated random walks and many other cellular automata or reaction-diffusion processes are covered by our analysis. We argue that the upper critical dimension below which anomalous fluctuation driven scaling appears is d_c=6, in contrast to a widespread belief (see Dickman cond-mat 0110043 for an overview). We provide th…
Nonequilibrium phase transitions between an active and an absorbing state are found in models of populations, epidemics, autocatalysis, and chemical reactions on a surface. While absorbing-state phase transitions fall generically in the DP universality class, this does not preclude other universality classes, associated with a symmetry or conservation law. An interesting issue concerns the dynamic critical behavior of models with an infinite number of absorbing configurations or a long memory. Sandpile models, the principal example of self-organized criticality (SOC), also exhibit absorbing- s…
Discontinuous transitions into absorbing states require an effective mechanism that prevents the stabilization of low density states. They can be found in different systems, such as lattice models or stochastic differential equations (e.g. Langevin equations). Recent results for the latter approach have shown that the inclusion of limited diffusion suppresses discontinuous transitions, whereas they are maintained for larger diffusion strengths. Here we give a further step by addressing the effect of diffusion in two simple lattice models originally presenting discontinuous absorbing transition…
We propose experimentally feasible ways to probe universal features of absorbing phase transitions from two different approaches, both based on numerical validations. On one hand, we numerically study a probability distribution of duration/length of intervals of local inactive state in quasi-steady state, which has been very commonly used in experiments, in a case of the contact process. We show that the distributions obey the universal scaling ansatz expected from phenomenological scaling argument, but that care must be taken in order to suppress a bias caused by censoring due to a finite obs…
We study nonequilibrium dynamical models with two absorbing states: interacting monomer-dimer models, probabilistic cellular automata models, nonequilibrium kinetic Ising models. These models exhibit a continuous phase transition from an active phase into an absorbing phase which belongs to the universality class of the models with the parity conservation. However, when we break the symmetry between the absorbing states by introducing a symmetry-breaking field, Monte Carlo simulations show that the system goes back to the conventional directed percolation universality class. In terms of domain…
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 shoul…
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…
In this paper, we perform Monte Carlo calculations to study the critical behavior of the spread of infectious diseases through a novel approach to the SIR epidemiological model. A stochastic lattice gas version of the model was applied on hybrid lattices which, in turn, are generated from typical square lattices when inserting a connection probability $p$ that a given lattice site has both first- and second-nearest neighbor interactions. By combining percolation theory and finite-size scaling analysis, we estimate both the critical threshold and leading critical exponent ratios of the non-abso…
At non-equilibrium phase transitions into absorbing (trapped) states, it is well known that the directed percolation (DP) critical scaling is shared by two classes of models with a single (S) absorbing state and with infinitely many (IM) absorbing states. We study the crossover behavior in one dimension, arising from a considerable reduction of the number of absorbing states (typically from the IM-type to the S-type DP models), by following two different (excitatory or inhibitory) routes which make the auxiliary field density abruptly jump at the crossover. Along the excitatory route, the syst…
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 $p_0$ …
In a recent work, a new numerical method (the lifespan method) has been introduced to study the critical properties of epidemic processes on complex networks [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{111}, 068701 (2013)]. Here, we present a detailed analysis of the viability of this method for the study of the critical properties of generic absorbing-state phase transitions in lattices. Focusing on the well understood case of the contact process, we develop a finite-size scaling theory to measure the critical point and its associated critical exponents. We show the validity of the method by studying numerical…
A one dimensional non-equilibrium stochastic model is proposed where each site of the lattice is occupied by a particle, which may be of type A or B. The time evolution of the model occurs through three processes: autocatalytic generation of A and B particles and spontaneous conversion A to B. The two-parameter phase diagram of the model is obtained in one- and two-site mean field approximations, as well as through numerical simulations and exact solution of finite systems extrapolated to the thermodynamic limit. A continuous line of transitions between an active and an absorbing phase is foun…
Universal Scaling Laws of Absorbing Phase Transitions in Artificial Deep Neural Networks
Institute for Physics of Intelligence, The University of Tokyo(智能物理研究所,东京大学);AI Laboratory, Aisin Corporation(爱思特实验室,爱思特公司);Department of Physics, The University of Tokyo(物理系,东京大学);Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo(固态物理研究所,东京大学)
We consider two different systems exhibiting a continuous phase transition into an absorbing state. Both models belong to the same universality class, i.e., they are characterized by the same scaling functions and the same critical exponents. Varying the range of interactions we examine the crossover from the mean-field-like to the non-mean-field scaling behavior. A phenomenological scaling form is applied in order to describe the full crossover region which spans several decades. Our results strongly supports the hypotheses that the crossover function is universal.
We derive an analytical expression for the transition path time (TPT) distribution for a one-dimensional particle crossing a parabolic barrier. The solution is expressed in terms of the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues of the associated Fokker-Planck equation. The particle performs an anomalous dynamics generated by a power-law memory kernel, which includes memoryless Markovian dynamics as a limiting case. Our result takes into account absorbing boundary conditions, extending existing results obtained for free boundaries. We show that TPT distributions obtained from numerical simulations are in …
We construct the {\it quasi-stationary} (QS) probability distribution for the Domany-Kinzel stochastic cellular automaton (DKCA), a discrete-time Markov process with an absorbing state. QS distributions are derived at both the one- and two-site levels. We characterize the distribuitions by their mean, and various moment ratios, and analyze the lifetime of the QS state, and the relaxation time to attain this state. Of particular interest are the scaling properties of the QS state along the critical line separating the active and absorbing phases. These exhibit a high degree of similarity to the…
We study diffusion of hardcore particles on a one dimensional periodic lattice subjected to a constraint that the separation between any two consecutive particles does not increase beyond a fixed value $(n+1);$ initial separation larger than $(n+1)$ can however decrease. These models undergo an absorbing state phase transition when the conserved particle density of the system falls bellow a critical threshold $ρ_c= 1/(n+1).$ We find that $ϕ_k$s, the density of $0$-clusters ($0$ representing vacancies) of size $0\le k<n,$ vanish at the transition point along with activity density $ρ_a$. The ste…
A finite size scaling theory, originally developed only for transitions to absorbing states [Phys. Rev. E {\bf 92}, 062126 (2015)], is extended to distinct sorts of discontinuous nonequilibrium phase transitions. Expressions for quantities such as, response functions, reduced cumulants and equal area probability distributions, are derived from phenomenological arguments. Irrespective of system details, all these quantities scale with the volume, establishing the dependence on size. The approach generality is illustrated through the analysis of different models. The present results are a releva…
Models undergoing a phase transition to an absorbing state weakly broken by the addition of a very low spontaneous nucleation rate are shown to exhibit hysteresis loops whose width $Δλ$ depends algebraically on the ramp rate $r$. Analytical arguments and numerical simulations show that $Δλ\sim r^κ$ with $κ= 1/(β'+1)$, where $β'$ is the critical exponent governing the survival probability of a seed near threshold. These results explain similar hysteresis scaling observed before in liquid crystal convection experiments. This phenomenon is conjectured to occur in a variety of other experimental s…
We consider triad dynamics as it was recently considered by Antal \emph{et al.} [T. Antal, P. L. Krapivsky, and S. Redner, Phys. Rev. E {\bf 72}, 036121 (2005)] as an approach to social balance. Here we generalize the topology from all-to-all to a regular one of a two-dimensional triangular lattice. The driving force in this dynamics is the reduction of frustrated triads in order to reach a balanced state. The dynamics is parameterized by a so-called propensity parameter $p$ that determines the tendency of negative links to become positive. As a function of $p$ we find a phase transition betwe…
We provide a comprehensive view of various phase transitions in random $K$-satisfiability problems solved by stochastic-local-search algorithms. In particular, we focus on the finite-size scaling (FSS) exponent, which is mathematically important and practically useful in analyzing finite systems. Using the FSS theory of nonequilibrium absorbing phase transitions, we show that the density of unsatisfied clauses clearly indicates the transition from the solvable (absorbing) phase to the unsolvable (active) phase as varying the noise parameter and the density of constraints. Based on the solution…
We instigate the properties of the threshold contact process (TCP), a process showing an absorbing-state phase transition with infinitely many absorbing states, on random complex networks. The finite size scaling exponents characterizing the transition are obtained in a heterogeneous mean field (HMF) approximation and compared with extensive simulations, particularly in the case of heterogeneous scale-free networks. We observe that the TCP exhibits the same critical properties as the contact process (CP), which undergoes an absorbing-state phase transition to a single absorbing state. The acco…
We study coupled Gauss maps in one dimension and observe a transition to band periodic state with 2 bands. This is a periodic state with period-2 in a coarse-grained sense. This state does not show any long-range order in space. We compute two different order parameters to quantify the transition a) Flipping rate $F(t)$ which measures departures from period-2 and b) Persistence $P(t)$ which quantifies the loss of memory of initial conditions. At the critical point, $F(t)$ shows a power-law decay with exponent 0.158 which is close to 1-D directed percolation (DP) transition. The persistence exp…
We consider a continuous-space and continuous-time diffusion process under resetting with memory. A particle resets to a position chosen from its trajectory in the past according to a memory kernel. Depending on the form of the memory kernel, we show analytically how different asymptotic behaviours of the variance of the particle position emerge at long times. These range from standard diffusive ($σ^2 \sim t$) all the way to anomalous ultraslow growth $σ^2 \sim \ln \ln t$.
Interdependent networks are more fragile under random attacks than simplex networks, because interlayer dependencies lead to cascading failures and finally to a sudden collapse. This is a hybrid phase transition (HPT), meaning that at the transition point the order parameter has a jump but there are also critical phenomena related to it. Here we study these phenomena on the Erdős--Rényi and the two dimensional interdependent networks and show that the hybrid percolation transition exhibits two kinds of critical behaviors: divergence of the fluctuations of the order parameter and power-law size…
Many-body unitary dynamics interspersed with repeated measurements display a rich phenomenology hallmarked by measurement-induced phase transitions. Employing feedback-control operations that steer the dynamics toward an absorbing state, we study the entanglement entropy behavior at the absorbing state phase transition. For short-range control operations, we observe a transition between phases with distinct sub-extensive scalings of entanglement entropy. In contrast, the system undergoes a transition between volume-law and area-law phases for long-range feedback operations. The fluctuations of…
Very recent experiments have discovered that localized light in strongly absorbing media displays intriguing diffusive phenomena. Here we develop a first-principles theory of light propagation in open media with arbitrary absorption strength and sample length. We show analytically that photons in localized open absorbing media exhibit unusual Brownian motion. Specifically, wave transport follows the diffusion equation with the diffusion coefficient exhibiting spatial resolution. Most strikingly, despite that the system is controlled by two parameters -- the ratio of the localization (absorptio…