Gravitational phase transitions with an exclusion constraint in position space

We discuss the statistical mechanics of a system of self-gravitating particles with an exclusion constraint in position space in a space of dimension $d$. The exclusion constraint puts an upper bound on the density of the system and can stabilize it against gravitational collapse. We plot the caloric curves giving the temperature as a function of the energy and investigate the nature of phase transitions as a function of the size of the system and of the dimension of space in both microcanonical and canonical ensembles. We consider stable and metastable states and emphasize the importance of the latter for systems with long-range interactions. For $d\le 2$, there is no phase transition. For $d>2$, phase transitions can take place between a "gaseous" phase unaffected by the exclusion constraint and a "condensed" phase dominated by this constraint. The condensed configurations have a core-halo structure made of a "rocky core" surrounded by an "atmosphere", similar to a giant gaseous planet. For large systems there exist microcanonical and canonical first order phase transitions. For intermediate systems, only canonical first order phase transitions are present. For small systems there is no phase transition at all. As a result, the phase diagram exhibits two critical points, one in each ensemble. There also exist a region of negative specific heats and a situation of ensemble inequivalence for sufficiently large systems. By a proper interpretation of the parameters, our results have application for the chemotaxis of bacterial populations in biology described by a generalized Keller-Segel model including an exclusion constraint in position space. They also describe colloids at a fluid interface driven by attractive capillary interactions when there is an excluded volume around the particles. Connexions with two-dimensional turbulence are also mentioned

A relaxation model for liquid-vapor phase change with metastability

We propose a model that describes phase transition including meta\-stable states present in the van der Waals Equation of State. From a convex optimization problem on the Helmoltz free energy of a mixture, we deduce a dynamical system that is able to depict the mass transfer between two phases, for which equilibrium states are either metastable states, stable states or {a coexistent state}. The dynamical system is then used as a relaxation source term in an isothermal 4$\times$4 two-phase model. We use a Finite Volume scheme that treats the convective part and the source term in a fractional step way. Numerical results illustrate the ability of the model to capture phase transition and metastable states

Metastability of Asymptotically Well-Behaved Potential Games

One of the main criticisms to game theory concerns the assumption of full rationality. Logit dynamics is a decentralized algorithm in which a level of irrationality (a.k.a. "noise") is introduced in players' behavior. In this context, the solution concept of interest becomes the logit equilibrium, as opposed to Nash equilibria. Logit equilibria are distributions over strategy profiles that possess several nice properties, including existence and uniqueness. However, there are games in which their computation may take time exponential in the number of players. We therefore look at an approximate version of logit equilibria, called metastable distributions, introduced by Auletta et al. [SODA 2012]. These are distributions that remain stable (i.e., players do not go too far from it) for a super-polynomial number of steps (rather than forever, as for logit equilibria). The hope is that these distributions exist and can be reached quickly by logit dynamics. We identify a class of potential games, called asymptotically well-behaved, for which the behavior of the logit dynamics is not chaotic as the number of players increases so to guarantee meaningful asymptotic results. We prove that any such game admits distributions which are metastable no matter the level of noise present in the system, and the starting profile of the dynamics. These distributions can be quickly reached if the rationality level is not too big when compared to the inverse of the maximum difference in potential. Our proofs build on results which may be of independent interest, including some spectral characterizations of the transition matrix defined by logit dynamics for generic games and the relationship of several convergence measures for Markov chains

Newtonian gravity in d dimensions

We study the influence of the dimension of space on the thermodynamics of the classical and quantum self-gravitating gas. We consider Hamiltonian systems of self-gravitating particles described by the microcanonical ensemble and self-gravitating Brownian particles described by the canonical ensemble. We present a gallery of caloric curves in different dimensions of space and discuss the nature of phase transitions as a function of the dimension d. We also provide the general form of the Virial theorem in d dimensions and discuss the particularity of the dimension d=4 for Hamiltonian systems and the dimension d=2 for Brownian systems

Phase transitions in self-gravitating systems and bacterial populations with a screened attractive potential

We consider a system of particles interacting via a screened Newtonian potential and study phase transitions between homogeneous and inhomogeneous states in the microcanonical and canonical ensembles. Like for other systems with long-range interactions, we obtain a great diversity of microcanonical and canonical phase transitions depending on the dimension of space and on the importance of the screening length. We also consider a system of particles in Newtonian interaction in the presence of a ``neutralizing background''. By a proper interpretation of the parameters, our study describes (i) self-gravitating systems in a cosmological setting, and (ii) chemotaxis of bacterial populations in the original Keller-Segel model