Fractional generalization of the Ginzburg-Landau equation: An unconventional approach to critical phenomena in complex media

Equations built on fractional derivatives prove to be a powerful tool in the description of complex systems when the effects of singularity, fractal supports, and long-range dependence play a role. In this paper, we advocate an application of the fractional derivative formalism to a fairly general class of critical phenomena when the organization of the system near the phase transition point is influenced by a competing nonlocal ordering. Fractional modifications of the free energy functional at criticality and of the widely known Ginzburg-Landau equation central to the classical Landau theory of second-type phase transitions are discussed in some detail. An implication of the fractional Ginzburg-Landau equation is a renormalization of the transition temperature owing to the nonlocality present.Comment: 10 pages, improved content, submitted for publication to Phys. Lett.

L\'evy flights on a comb and the plasma staircase

We formulate the problem of confined L\'evy flight on a comb. The comb represents a sawtooth-like potential field $V(x)$, with the asymmetric teeth favoring net transport in a preferred direction. The shape effect is modeled as a power-law dependence $V(x) \propto |\Delta x|^n$ within the sawtooth period, followed by an abrupt drop-off to zero, after which the initial power-law dependence is reset. It is found that the L\'evy flights will be confined in the sense of generalized central limit theorem if (i) the spacing between the teeth is sufficiently broad, and (ii) $n > 4-\mu$, where $\mu$ is the fractal dimension of the flights. In particular, for the Cauchy flights ($\mu = 1$), $n>3$. The study is motivated by recent observations of localization-delocalization of transport avalanches in banded flows in the Tore Supra tokamak and is intended to devise a theory basis to explain the observed phenomenology.Comment: 13 pages; 3 figures; accepted for publication in Physical Review