Energy distribution and effective temperatures in a driven dissipative model

We investigate non-equilibrium behavior of driven dissipative systems, using the model presented in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 240601 (2004)]. We solve the non-Boltzmann steady state energy distribution and the temporal evolution to it, and find its high energy tail to behave exponentially. We demonstrate that various measures of effective temperatures generally differ. We discuss infinite hierarchies of effective temperatures defined from moments of the non-exponential energy distribution, and relate them to the "configurational temperature", measured directly from instantaneous particle locations without any kinetic information. We calculate the "granular temperature", characterizing the average energy in the system, two different "fluctuation temperatures", scaling fluctuation-dissipation relations, and the "entropic temperature", defined from differentiating the entropy with respect to energy

Self Organization and Self Avoiding Limit Cycles

A simple periodically driven system displaying rich behavior is introduced and studied. The system self-organizes into a mosaic of static ordered regions with three possible patterns, which are threaded by one-dimensional paths on which a small number of mobile particles travel. These trajectories are self-avoiding and non-intersecting, and their relationship to self-avoiding random walks is explored. Near $\rho=0.5$ the distribution of path lengths becomes power-law like up to some cutoff length, suggesting a possible critical state

Ordered amorphous spin system

A solid is typically deemed amorphous when there are no Bragg peaks in its diffraction pattern. We discuss a two dimensional configuration of Ising spins with an autocorrelation function which vanishes at all nonzero distances, so that its scattering pattern is flat. This configuration is a ground state of a Hamiltonian with deterministic, translationally-invariant and finite range interactions. Despite ostensibly being amorphous, this configuration has perfect underlying order. The finite temperature behavior of this model exhibits ordering transitions at successively larger length scales.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Discussion added on finite temperature behavior; supplemental material adde

Quantifying hidden order out of equilibrium

While the equilibrium properties, states, and phase transitions of interacting systems are well described by statistical mechanics, the lack of suitable state parameters has hindered the understanding of non-equilibrium phenomena in diverse settings, from glasses to driven systems to biology. The length of a losslessly compressed data file is a direct measure of its information content: The more ordered the data is, the lower its information content and the shorter the length of its encoding can be made. Here, we describe how data compression enables the quantification of order in non-equilibrium and equilibrium many-body systems, both discrete and continuous, even when the underlying form of order is unknown. We consider absorbing state models on and off-lattice, as well as a system of active Brownian particles undergoing motility-induced phase separation. The technique reliably identifies non-equilibrium phase transitions, determines their character, quantitatively predicts certain critical exponents without prior knowledge of the order parameters, and reveals previously unknown ordering phenomena. This technique should provide a quantitative measure of organization in condensed matter and other systems exhibiting collective phase transitions in and out of equilibrium

Fluctuation-dissipation relations in driven dissipative systems

Exact theoretical results for the violation of time dependent fluctuation-dissipation relations in driven dissipative systems are presented. The ratio of correlation to delayed response in the stochastic model introduced in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 240601 (2004)] is shown to depend on measurement time. The fluctuation temperature defined by this ratio differs both from the temperature of the environment performing the driving, and from other effective temperatures of the system, such as the average energy (or "granular temperature"). General explanations are given for the time independence of fluctuation temperature for simple measurements or long measurement times.Comment: Author name changed; Clarifications made (mostly in introduction); References adde

Ion transport through confined ion channels in the presence of immobile charges

We study charge transport in an ionic solution in a confined nanoscale geometry in the presence of an externally applied electric field and immobile background charges. For a range of parameters, the ion current shows non-monotonic behavior as a function of the external ion concentration. For small applied electric field, the ion transport can be understood from simple analytic arguments, which are supported by Monte Carlo simulation. The results qualitatively explain measurements of ion current seen in a recent experiment on ion transport through a DNA-threaded nanopore (D. J. Bonthuis et. al., Phys. Rev. Lett, vol. 97, 128104 (2006)).Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure