66 research outputs found
Barkhausen Noise and Critical Scaling in the Demagnetization Curve
The demagnetization curve, or initial magnetization curve, is studied by
examining the embedded Barkhausen noise using the non-equilibrium, zero
temperature random-field Ising model. The demagnetization curve is found to
reflect the critical point seen as the system's disorder is changed. Critical
scaling is found for avalanche sizes and the size and number of spanning
avalanches. The critical exponents are derived from those related to the
saturation loop and subloops. Finally, the behavior in the presence of long
range demagnetizing fields is discussed. Results are presented for simulations
of up to one million spins.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter
Weirdest Martensite: Smectic Liquid Crystal Microstructure And Weyl-poincaré Invariance
Smectic liquid crystals are remarkable, beautiful examples of materials microstructure, with ordered patterns of geometrically perfect ellipses and hyperbolas. The solution of the complex problem of filling three-dimensional space with domains of focal conics under constraining boundary conditions yields a set of strict rules, which are similar to the compatibility conditions in a martensitic crystal. Here we present the rules giving compatible conditions for the concentric circle domains found at two-dimensional smectic interfaces with planar boundary conditions. Using configurations generated by numerical simulations, we develop a clustering algorithm to decompose the planar boundaries into domains. The interfaces between different domains agree well with the smectic compatibility conditions. We also discuss generalizations of our approach to describe the full three-dimensional smectic domains, where the variant symmetry group is the Weyl-Poincaré group of Lorentz boosts, translations, rotations, and dilatations. © 2016 American Physical Society.1161
From Damage Percolation to Crack Nucleation Through Finite Size Criticality
We present a unified theory of fracture in disordered brittle media that reconciles apparently conflicting results reported in the literature. Our renormalization group based approach yields a phase diagram in which the percolation fixed point, expected for infinite disorder, is unstable for finite disorder and flows to a zero-disorder nucleation-type fixed point, thus showing that fracture has a mixed first order and continuous character. In a region of intermediate disorder and finite system sizes, we predict a crossover with mean-field avalanche scaling. We discuss intriguing connections to other phenomena where critical scaling is only observed in finite size systems and disappears in the thermodynamic limit
Smectic blue phases: layered systems with high intrinsic curvature
We report on a construction for smectic blue phases, which have quasi-long
range smectic translational order as well as three dimensional crystalline
order. Our proposed structures fill space by adding layers on top of a minimal
surface, introducing either curvature or edge defects as necessary. We find
that for the right range of material parameters, the favorable saddle-splay
energy of these structures can stabilize them against uniform layered
structures. We also consider the nature of curvature frustration between mean
curvature and saddle-splay.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure
Rayleigh loops in the random-field Ising model on the Bethe lattice
We analyze the demagnetization properties of the random-field Ising model on
the Bethe lattice focusing on the beahvior near the disorder induced phase
transition. We derive an exact recursion relation for the magnetization and
integrate it numerically. Our analysis shows that demagnetization is possible
only in the continous high disorder phase, where at low field the loops are
described by the Rayleigh law. In the low disorder phase, the saturation loop
displays a discontinuity which is reflected by a non vanishing magnetization
m_\infty after a series of nested loops. In this case, at low fields the loops
are not symmetric and the Rayleigh law does not hold.Comment: 8pages, 6 figure
Average shape of fluctuations for subdiffusive walks
We study the average shape of fluctuations for subdiffusive processes, i.e.,
processes with uncorrelated increments but where the waiting time distribution
has a broad power-law tail. This shape is obtained analytically by means of a
fractional diffusion approach. We find that, in contrast with processes where
the waiting time between increments has finite variance, the fluctuation shape
is no longer a semicircle: it tends to adopt a table-like form as the
subdiffusive character of the process increases. The theoretical predictions
are compared with numerical simulation results.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication Phys. Rev. E (Replaced
for the latest version, in press.) Section II rewritte
The nature of slow dynamics in a minimal model of frustration-limited domains
We present simulation results for the dynamics of a schematic model based on
the frustration-limited domain picture of glass-forming liquids. These results
are compared with approximate theoretical predictions analogous to those
commonly used for supercooled liquid dynamics. Although model relaxation times
increase by several orders of magnitude in a non-Arrhenius manner as a
microphase separation transition is approached, the slow relaxation is in many
ways dissimilar to that of a liquid. In particular, structural relaxation is
nearly exponential in time at each wave vector, indicating that the mode
coupling effects dominating liquid relaxation are comparatively weak within
this model. Relaxation properties of the model are instead well reproduced by
the simplest dynamical extension of a static Hartree approximation. This
approach is qualitatively accurate even for temperatures at which the mode
coupling approximation predicts loss of ergodicity. These results suggest that
the thermodynamically disordered phase of such a minimal model poorly
caricatures the slow dynamics of a liquid near its glass transition
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