A minimal mechanism leading to discontinuous phase transitions for short-range systems with absorbing states

Motivated by recent findings, we discuss the existence of a direct and robust mechanism providing discontinuous absorbing transitions in short range systems with single species, with no extra symmetries or conservation laws. We consider variants of the contact process, in which at least two adjacent particles (instead of one, as commonly assumed) are required to create a new species. Many interaction rules are analyzed, including distinct cluster annihilations and a modified version of the original pair contact process (PCP). Through detailed time dependent numerical simulations we find that for our modified models, the phase transitions are of first-order, hence contrasting with their corresponding usual formulations in the literature, which are of second-order. By calculating the order-parameter distributions, the obtained bimodal shapes as well as the finite scale analysis reinforce coexisting phases, so a discontinuous transition. These findings strongly suggest that above particle creation requirements constitute a minimum and fundamental mechanism determining the phase coexistence in short-range contact processes

Contact processes with competitive dynamics in bipartite lattices: Effects of distinct interactions

The two-dimensional contact process (CP) with a competitive dynamics proposed by Martins {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. E {\bf 84}, 011125(2011)] leads to the appearance of an unusual active asymmetric phase, in which the system sublattices are unequally populated. It differs from the usual CP only by the fact that particles also interact with their next-nearest neighbor sites via a distinct strength creation rate and for the inclusion of an inhibition effect, proportional to the local density. Aimed at investigating the robustness of such asymmetric phase, in this paper we study the influence of distinct interactions for two bidimensional CPs. In the first model, the interaction between first neighbors requires a minimal neighborhood of adjacent particles for creating new offspring, whereas second neighbors interact as usual (e.g. at least one neighboring particle is required). The second model takes the opposite situation, in which the restrictive dynamics is in the interaction between next-nearest neighbors sites. Both models are investigated under mean field theory (MFT) and Monte Carlo simulations. In similarity with results by Martins {\it et. al.}, the inclusion of distinct sublattice interactions maintain the occurrence of an asymmetric active phase and reentrant transition lines. In contrast, remarkable differences are presented, such as discontinuous phase transitions (even between the active phases), the appearance of tricritical points and the stabilization of active phases under larger values of control parameters. Finally, we have shown that the critical behaviors are not altered due to the change of interactions, in which the absorbing transitions belong to the directed percolation (DP) universality class, whereas second-order active phase transitions belong to the Ising universality class.Comment: accepted for publication in Journal of Statistical Mechanics (2014

Equivalence between microcanonical methods for lattice models

The development of reliable methods for estimating microcanonical averages constitutes an important issue in statistical mechanics. One possibility consists of calculating a given microcanonical quantity by means of typical relations in the grand-canonical ensemble. But given that distinct ensembles are equivalent only at the thermodynamic limit, a natural question is if finite size effects would prevent such procedure. In this work we investigate thoroughly this query in different systems yielding first and second order phase transitions. Our study is carried out from the direct comparison with the thermodynamic relation $(\frac{\partial s}{\partial e})$, where the entropy is obtained from the density of states. A systematic analysis for finite sizes is undertaken. We find that, although results become inequivalent for extreme low system sizes, the equivalence holds true for rather small $L$'s. Therefore direct, simple (when compared with other well established approaches) and very precise microcanonical quantities can be obtained from the proposed method

Effect of diffusion in one-dimensional discontinuous absorbing phase transitions

It is known that diffusion provokes substantial changes in continuous absorbing phase transitions. Conversely, its effect on discontinuous transitions is much less understood. In order to shed light in this direction, we study the inclusion of diffusion in the simplest one-dimensional model with a discontinuous absorbing phase transition, namely the long-range contact process ($\sigma$-CP). Particles interact as in the usual CP, but the transition rate depends on the length $\ell$ of inactive sites according to $1 + a \ell^{-\sigma}$, where $a$ and $\sigma$ are control parameters. In the absence of diffusion, this system presents both a discontinuous and a continuous phase transition, depending on the value of $\sigma$. The inclusion of diffusion in this model has been investigated by numerical simulations and mean-field calculations. Results show that there exists three distinct regimes. For sufficiently low and large $\sigma$'s the transition is respectively always discontinuous or continuous, independently of the strength of the diffusion. On the other hand, in an intermediate range of $\sigma$'s, the diffusion causes a suppression of the phase coexistence leading to a continuous transition belonging to the DP universality class. This set of results does not agree with mean-field predictions, whose reasons will be discussed further

Exploiting a semi-analytic approach to study first order phase transitions

In a previous contribution, Phys. Rev. Lett 107, 230601 (2011), we have proposed a method to treat first order phase transitions at low temperatures. It describes arbitrary order parameter through an analytical expression $W$, which depends on few coefficients. Such coefficients can be calculated by simulating relatively small systems, hence with a low computational cost. The method determines the precise location of coexistence lines and arbitrary response functions (from proper derivatives of $W$). Here we exploit and extend the approach, discussing a more general condition for its validity. We show that in fact it works beyond the low $T$ limit, provided the first order phase transition is strong enough. Thus, $W$ can be used even to study athermal problems, as exemplified for a hard-core lattice gas. We furthermore demonstrate that other relevant thermodynamic quantities, as entropy and energy, are also obtained from $W$. To clarify some important mathematical features of the method, we analyze in details an analytically solvable problem. Finally, we discuss different representative models, namely, Potts, Bell-Lavis, and associating gas-lattice, illustrating the procedure broad applicability.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Journal of Chemical Physics (2013

Comparing parallel and simulated tempering enhanced sampling algorithms at phase transition regimes

Two important enhanced sampling algorithms, simulated (ST) and parallel (PT) tempering, are commonly used when ergodic simulations may be hard to achieve, e.g, due to a phase space separated by large free-energy barriers. This is so for systems around first-order phase transitions, a case still not fully explored with such approaches in the literature. In this contribution we make a comparative study between the PT and ST for the Ising (a lattice-gas in the fluid language) and the BEG (a lattice-gas with vacancies) models at phase transition regimes. We show that although the two methods are equivalent in the limit of sufficiently long simulations, the PT is more advantageous than the ST with respect to all the analysis performed: convergence towards the stationarity; frequency of tunneling between phases at the coexistence; and decay of time-displaced correlation functions of thermodynamic quantities. Qualitative arguments for why one may expect better results from the PT than the ST near phase transitions conditions are also presented

Entropy production and heat capacity of systems under time-dependent oscillating temperature

Using the stochastic thermodynamics, we determine the entropy production and the dynamic heat capacity of systems subject to a sinusoidally time dependent temperature, in which case the systems are permanently out of thermodynamic equilibrium inducing a continuous generation of entropy. The systems evolve in time according to a Fokker-Planck or to a Fokker-Planck-Kramers equation. Solutions of these equations, for the case of harmonic forces, are found exactly from which the heat flux, the production of entropy and the dynamic heat capacity are obtained as functions of the frequency of the temperature modulation. These last two quantities are shown to be related to the real an imaginary parts of the complex heat capacity.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Temporal disorder does not forbid discontinuous absorbing phase transitions in low dimensional systems

Distinct works have claimed that spatial (quenched) disorder can suppress the discontinuous absorbing phase transitions. Conversely, the scenario for temporal disorder for discontinuous absorbing phase transitions is unknown. In order to shed some light in this direction, we tackle its effect in three bidimensional examples, presenting undoubtedly discontinuous absorbing phase transitions. Except in one case (to be explained further), the temporal disorder is introduced by allowing the control parameter to be time dependent $p\rightarrow p(t)$ according to a uniform distribution of mean $p_0$ and width $\sigma$, in which at the emergence of the phase transition the system transits between active and absorbing regimes. In contrast to the spatial disorder, numerical results strongly suggest that temporal disorder does not forbid the existence of discontinuous transition. All cases are signed by behaviors similar to their pure (without disorder) counterparts, including bistability around the coexistence point and common finite size scaling behavior with the inverse of the system volume, as recently proposed in Phys. Rev. E. {\bf 92}, 062126 (2015). We also observe that temporal disorder does not induce temporal Griffiths phases around phase transitions, at least for $d=2$.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure

Subcritical series expansions for multiple-creation nonequilibrium models

Perturbative subcritical series expansions for the steady properties of a class of one-dimensional nonequilibrium models characterized by multiple-reaction rules are presented here. We developed long series expansions for three nonequilibrium models: the pair-creation contact process, the A-pair-creation contact process, which is closely related system to the previous model, and the triplet-creation contact process. The long series allowed us to obtain accurate estimates for the critical point and critical exponents. Numerical simulations are also performed and compared with the series expansions results.Comment: 14 pages and 4 figures. submited to Physical Review

Robustness of first-order phase transitions in one-dimensional long-range contact processes

It has been proposed (Phys. Rev. E {\bf 71}, 026121 (2005)) that unlike the short range contact process, a long-range counterpart may lead to the existence a discontinuous phase transition in one dimension. Aiming at exploring such link, here we investigate thoroughly a family of long-range contact processes. They are introduced through the transition rate $1+a\ell^{-\sigma}$, where $\ell$ is the length of inactive islands surrounding particles. In the former approach we reconsider the original model (called $\sigma-$contact process), by considering distinct mechanisms of weakening the long-range interaction toward the short-range limit. Second, we study the effect of different rules, including creation and annihilation by clusters of particles and distinct versions with infinitely many absorbing states. Our results show that all examples presenting a single absorbing state, a discontinuous transition is possible for small $\sigma$. On the other hand, the presence of infinite absorbing states leads to distinct scenario depending on the interactions at the frontier of inactive sites