Melting of an Ising Quadrant

We consider an Ising ferromagnet endowed with zero-temperature spin-flip dynamics and examine the evolution of the Ising quadrant, namely the spin configuration when the minority phase initially occupies a quadrant while the majority phase occupies three remaining quadrants. The two phases are then always separated by a single interface which generically recedes into the minority phase in a self-similar diffusive manner. The area of the invaded region grows (on average) linearly with time and exhibits non-trivial fluctuations. We map the interface separating the two phases onto the one-dimensional symmetric simple exclusion process and utilize this isomorphism to compute basic cumulants of the area. First, we determine the variance via an exact microscopic analysis (the Bethe ansatz). Then we turn to a continuum treatment by recasting the underlying exclusion process into the framework of the macroscopic fluctuation theory. This provides a systematic way of analyzing the statistics of the invaded area and allows us to determine the asymptotic behaviors of the first four cumulants of the area.Comment: 28 pages, 3 figures, submitted to J. Phys.

Generalized Exclusion Processes: Transport Coefficients

A class of generalized exclusion processes parametrized by the maximal occupancy, $k\geq 1$, is investigated. For these processes with symmetric nearest-neighbor hopping, we compute the diffusion coefficient and show that it is independent on the spatial dimension. In the extreme cases of $k=1$ (simple symmetric exclusion process) and $k=\infty$ (non-interacting symmetric random walks) the diffusion coefficient is constant; for $2\leq k<\infty$, the diffusion coefficient depends on the density and the maximal occupancy $k$. We also study the evolution of a tagged particle. It exhibits a diffusive behavior which is characterized by the coefficient of self-diffusion which we probe numerically.Comment: v1: 9 pages, 6 figures. v2: + 2 references. v3: 10 pages, 7 figures, published versio

Tagged particle in single-file diffusion

Single-file diffusion is a one-dimensional interacting infinite-particle system in which the order of particles never changes. An intriguing feature of single-file diffusion is that the mean-square displacement of a tagged particle exhibits an anomalously slow sub-diffusive growth. We study the full statistics of the displacement using a macroscopic fluctuation theory. For the simplest single-file system of impenetrable Brownian particles we compute the large deviation function and provide an independent verification using an exact solution based on the microscopic dynamics. For an arbitrary single-file system, we apply perturbation techniques and derive an explicit formula for the variance in terms of the transport coefficients. The same method also allows us to compute the fourth cumulant of the tagged particle displacement for the symmetric exclusion process.Comment: 34 pages, to appear in Journal of Statistical Physics (2015

Reply to "Comment on Generalized Exclusion Processes: Transport Coefficients"

We reply to the comment of Becker, Nelissen, Cleuren, Partoens, and Van den Broeck, Phys. Rev. E 93, 046101 (2016) on our article, Phys. Rev. E 90, 052108 (2014) about transport properties of a class of generalized exclusion processes.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figur

Large Deviations in Single File Diffusion

We apply macroscopic fluctuation theory to study the diffusion of a tracer in a one-dimensional interacting particle system with excluded mutual passage, known as single-file diffusion. In the case of Brownian point particles with hard-core repulsion, we derive the cumulant generating function of the tracer position and its large deviation function. In the general case of arbitrary inter-particle interactions, we express the variance of the tracer position in terms of the collective transport properties, viz. the diffusion coefficient and the mobility. Our analysis applies both for fluctuating (annealed) and fixed (quenched) initial configurations.Comment: Revised version with few corrections. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Dynamical properties of single-file diffusion

We study the statistics of a tagged particle in single-file diffusion, a one-dimensional interacting infinite-particle system in which the order of particles never changes. We compute the two-time correlation function for the displacement of the tagged particle for an arbitrary single-file system. We also discuss single-file analogs of the arcsine law and the law of the iterated logarithm characterizing the behavior of Brownian motion. Using a macroscopic fluctuation theory we devise a formalism giving the cumulant generating functional. In principle, this functional contains the full statistics of the tagged particle trajectory---the full single-time statistics, all multiple-time correlation functions, etc. are merely special cases.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur

Interacting quantum walkers: Two-body bosonic and fermionic bound states

We investigate the dynamics of bound states of two interacting particles, either bosons or fermions, performing a continuous-time quantum walk on a one-dimensional lattice. We consider the situation where the distance between both particles has a hard bound, and the richer situation where the particles are bound by a smooth confining potential. The main emphasis is on the velocity characterizing the ballistic spreading of these bound states, and on the structure of the asymptotic distribution profile of their center-of-mass coordinate. The latter profile generically exhibits many internal fronts.Comment: 31 pages, 14 figure

Survival of classical and quantum particles in the presence of traps

We present a detailed comparison of the motion of a classical and of a quantum particle in the presence of trapping sites, within the framework of continuous-time classical and quantum random walk. The main emphasis is on the qualitative differences in the temporal behavior of the survival probabilities of both kinds of particles. As a general rule, static traps are far less efficient to absorb quantum particles than classical ones. Several lattice geometries are successively considered: an infinite chain with a single trap, a finite ring with a single trap, a finite ring with several traps, and an infinite chain and a higher-dimensional lattice with a random distribution of traps with a given density. For the latter disordered systems, the classical and the quantum survival probabilities obey a stretched exponential asymptotic decay, albeit with different exponents. These results confirm earlier predictions, and the corresponding amplitudes are evaluated. In the one-dimensional geometry of the infinite chain, we obtain a full analytical prediction for the amplitude of the quantum problem, including its dependence on the trap density and strength.Comment: 35 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables. Minor update

Return probability of NN fermions released from a 1D confining potential

We consider $N$ non-interacting fermions prepared in the ground state of a 1D confining potential and submitted to an instantaneous quench consisting in releasing the trapping potential. We show that the quantum return probability of finding the fermions in their initial state at a later time falls off as a power law in the long-time regime, with a universal exponent depending only on $N$ and on whether the free fermions expand over the full line or over a half-line. In both geometries the amplitudes of this power-law decay are expressed in terms of finite determinants of moments of the one-body bound-state wavefunctions in the potential. These amplitudes are worked out explicitly for the harmonic and square-well potentials. At large fermion numbers they obey scaling laws involving the Fermi energy of the initial state. The use of the Selberg-Mehta integrals stemming from random matrix theory has been instrumental in the derivation of these results.Comment: 24 pages, 1 tabl

Asymmetric Exclusion Process with Global Hopping

We study a one-dimensional totally asymmetric simple exclusion process with one special site from which particles fly to any empty site (not just to the neighboring site). The system attains a non-trivial stationary state with density profile varying over the spatial extent of the system. The density profile undergoes a non-equilibrium phase transition when the average density passes through the critical value 1-1/[4(1-ln 2)]=0.185277..., viz. in addition to the discontinuity in the vicinity of the special site, a shock wave is formed in the bulk of the system when the density exceeds the critical density.Comment: Published version (v2