Surprisingly similar scaling in and out of equilibrium: disordered magnets
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Principal investigator: Karin A. Dahmen (UIUC) Student: Yang Liu
Objective
Understand whether non-equilibrium (or history-dependent) disorder-induced phase transitions have the same universal scaling behavior on long length scales as the corresponding equilibrium phase transition.
Approach
Numerical studies of random-field Ising model in both non-equilibrium and equilibrium
Significant results
The considered non-equilibrium and equilibrium disorder-induced phase transitions very likely do have same universal scaling behavior.
Why it matters
This result is rather non-intuitive and surprising. It may open the door to resolve decade-old controversies about the equilibrium phase transition. Also, measurements on non-equilibrium systems can then be used to study equilibrium critical scaling.
Integrated avalanche size distribution in equilibrium and its scaling collapse using non-equilibrium scaling function.
