Landau theory for non-equilibrium steady states

Camille Aron (1, 2) , Claudio Chamon (3)

1 Champs Aléatoires et Systèmes hors d'Équilibre
2 Institute for Theoretical Physics, KULeuven
3 Department of Physics [Boston]

We examine how non-equilibrium steady states close to a continuous phase transition can still be described by a Landau potential if one forgoes the assumption of analyticity. In a system simultaneously coupled to several baths at different temperatures, the nonanalytic potential arises from the different density of states of the baths. In periodically driven-dissipative systems, the role of multiple baths is played by a single bath transferring energy at different harmonics of the driving frequency. The mean-field critical exponents become dependent on the low-energy features of the two most singular baths. We propose an extension beyond mean field.

Domaines: Mécanique statistique [cond-mat.stat-mech]

Camille Aron, Claudio Chamon. Landau theory for non-equilibrium steady states. SciPost Physics, 2020, 8, ⟨10.21468/scipostphys.8.5.074⟩. ⟨hal-03025793⟩