6,658 research outputs found
Metastability and Avalanches in a Nonequilibrium Ferromagnetic System
We present preliminary results on the metastable behavior of a nonequilibrium
ferromagnetic system. The metastable state mean lifetime is a non-monotonous
function of temperature; it shows a maximum at certain non-zero temperature
which depends on the strengh of the nonequilibrium perturbation. This is in
contrast with the equilibrium case in which lifetime increases monotonously as
the temperature is decreasesed. We also report on avalanches during the decay
from the metastable state. Assuming both free boundaries and nonequilibrium
impurities, the avalanches exhibit power-law size and lifetime distributions.
Such scale free behavior is very sensible. The chances are that our
observations may be observable in real (i.e. impure) ferromagnetic
nanoparticles.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, to be published in 2002 Granada Seminar
Proceeding
Symmetries in Fluctuations Far from Equilibrium
Fluctuations arise universally in Nature as a reflection of the discrete
microscopic world at the macroscopic level. Despite their apparent noisy
origin, fluctuations encode fundamental aspects of the physics of the system at
hand, crucial to understand irreversibility and nonequilibrium behavior. In
order to sustain a given fluctuation, a system traverses a precise optimal path
in phase space. Here we show that by demanding invariance of optimal paths
under symmetry transformations, new and general fluctuation relations valid
arbitrarily far from equilibrium are unveiled. This opens an unexplored route
toward a deeper understanding of nonequilibrium physics by bringing symmetry
principles to the realm of fluctuations. We illustrate this concept studying
symmetries of the current distribution out of equilibrium. In particular we
derive an isometric fluctuation relation which links in a strikingly simple
manner the probabilities of any pair of isometric current fluctuations. This
relation, which results from the time-reversibility of the dynamics, includes
as a particular instance the Gallavotti-Cohen fluctuation theorem in this
context but adds a completely new perspective on the high level of symmetry
imposed by time-reversibility on the statistics of nonequilibrium fluctuations.
The new symmetry implies remarkable hierarchies of equations for the current
cumulants and the nonlinear response coefficients, going far beyond Onsager's
reciprocity relations and Green-Kubo formulae. We confirm the validity of the
new symmetry relation in extensive numerical simulations, and suggest that the
idea of symmetry in fluctuations as invariance of optimal paths has
far-reaching consequences in diverse fields.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Reentrant Behavior of the Spinodal Curve in a Nonequilibrium Ferromagnet
The metastable behavior of a kinetic Ising--like ferromagnetic model system
in which a generic type of microscopic disorder induces nonequilibrium steady
states is studied by computer simulation and a mean--field approach. We pay
attention, in particular, to the spinodal curve or intrinsic coercive field
that separates the metastable region from the unstable one. We find that, under
strong nonequilibrium conditions, this exhibits reentrant behavior as a
function of temperature. That is, metastability does not happen in this regime
for both low and high temperatures, but instead emerges for intermediate
temperature, as a consequence of the non-linear interplay between thermal and
nonequilibrium fluctuations. We argue that this behavior, which is in contrast
with equilibrium phenomenology and could occur in actual impure specimens,
might be related to the presence of an effective multiplicative noise in the
system.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures; Final version to appear in Phys. Rev. E; Section
V has been revise
Joint constraints on galaxy bias and through the N-pdf of the galaxy number density
We present a full description of the N-probability density function of the
galaxy number density fluctuations. This N-pdf is given in terms, on the one
hand, of the cold dark matter correlations and, on the other hand, of the
galaxy bias parameter. The method relies on the assumption commonly adopted
that the dark matter density fluctuations follow a local non-linear
transformation of the initial energy density perturbations. The N-pdf of the
galaxy number density fluctuations allows for an optimal estimation of the bias
parameter (e.g., via maximum-likelihood estimation, or Bayesian inference if
there exists any a priori information on the bias parameter), and of those
parameters defining the dark matter correlations, in particular its amplitude
(). It also provides the proper framework to perform model selection
between two competitive hypotheses. The parameters estimation capabilities of
the N-pdf are proved by SDSS-like simulations (both ideal log-normal
simulations and mocks obtained from Las Damas simulations), showing that our
estimator is unbiased. We apply our formalism to the 7th release of the SDSS
main sample (for a volume-limited subset with absolute magnitudes ). We obtain and , for galaxy number density fluctuations in cells of a size of
Mpc. Different model selection criteria show that galaxy biasing is
clearly favoured.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables. v2: Substantial revision, adding the
joint constraints with \sigma_8 and testing with Las Damas mocks. Matches
version accepted for publication in JCA
Shell-like structures in our cosmic neighbourhood
Signatures of the processes in the early Universe are imprinted in the cosmic
web. Some of them may define shell-like structures characterised by typical
scales. We search for shell-like structures in the distribution of nearby rich
clusters of galaxies drawn from the SDSS DR8. We calculate the distance
distributions between rich clusters of galaxies, and groups and clusters of
various richness, look for the maxima in the distance distributions, and select
candidates of shell-like structures. We analyse the space distribution of
groups and clusters forming shell walls. We find six possible candidates of
shell-like structures, in which galaxy clusters have maxima in the distance
distribution to other galaxy groups and clusters at the distance of about 120
Mpc/h. The rich galaxy cluster A1795, the central cluster of the Bootes
supercluster, has the highest maximum in the distance distribution of other
groups and clusters around them at the distance of about 120 Mpc/h among our
rich cluster sample, and another maximum at the distance of about 240 Mpc/h.
The structures of galaxy systems causing the maxima at 120 Mpc/h form an almost
complete shell of galaxy groups, clusters and superclusters. The richest
systems in the nearby universe, the Sloan Great Wall, the Corona Borealis
supercluster and the Ursa Major supercluster are among them. The probability
that we obtain maxima like this from random distributions is lower than 0.001.
Our results confirm that shell-like structures can be found in the distribution
of nearby galaxies and their systems. The radii of the possible shells are
larger than expected for a BAO shell (approximately 109 Mpc/h versus
approximately 120 Mpc/h), and they are determined by very rich galaxy clusters
and superclusters with high density contrast while BAO shells are barely seen
in the galaxy distribution. We discuss possible consequences of these
differences.Comment: Comments: 9 pages, 10 figures, Astronomy and Astrophysics, in pres
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