Unified phase-field model for epitaxial growth of multi-scale three-dimensional islands on insulating surfaces

In this paper we present a unified phase-field model for non-equilibrium growths of various three-dimensional metal islands on insulating surfaces. We introduce a phase-field variable to distinguish the island from the non-island regions and substrate and a density variable to describe local density of deposited adatoms. Two partial differential equations with appropriate boundary conditions, as the governing equations, are used to describe the evolution of the three-dimensional metal islands and the diffusion of adatoms. We solve the equations by using an adaptive mesh refinement method so that we can simulate the non-equilibrium growth of three-dimensional metal islands from tens of nanometers to several micrometers. We investigate the dependence of simulated results on the model parameters and experimental conditions. Equilibrium shape of such islands can be obtained through sufficient post-deposition relaxation. Experimental trends of island size and shape on various scales are obtained with reasonable parameters. This method should be a good approach to non-equilibrium growths of multi-scale three-dimensional metal islands.     

Specific heat ratio effects of compressible Rayleigh–Taylor instability studied by discrete Boltzmann method

Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) instability widely exists in nature and engineering fields. How to better understand the physical mechanism of RT instability is of great theoretical significance and practical value. At present, abundant results of RT instability have been obtained by traditional macroscopic methods. However, research on the thermodynamic non-equilibrium (TNE) effects in the process of system evolution is relatively scarce. In this paper, the discrete Boltzmann method based on non-equilibrium statistical physics is utilized to study the effects of the specific heat ratio on compressible RT instability. The evolution process of the compressible RT system with different specific heat ratios can be analyzed by the temperature gradient and the proportion of the non-equilibrium region. Firstly, as a result of the competition between the macroscopic magnitude gradient and the non-equilibrium region, the average TNE intensity first increases and then reduces, and it increases with the specific heat ratio decreasing; the specific heat ratio has the same effect on the global strength of the viscous stress tensor. Secondly, the moment when the total temperature gradient in y direction deviates from the fixed value can be regarded as a physical criterion for judging the formation of the vortex structure. Thirdly, under the competition between the temperature gradients and the contact area of the two fluids, the average intensity of the non-equilibrium quantity related to the heat flux shows diversity, and the influence of the specific heat ratio is also quite remarkable.     

Steady bipartite coherence induced by non-equilibrium environment

We study the steady state of two coupled two-level atoms interacting with a non-equilibrium environment that consists of two heat baths at different temperatures. Specifically, we analyze four cases with respect to the configuration about the interactions between atoms and heat baths. Using secular approximation, the conventional master equation usually neglects steady-state coherence, even when the system is coupled with a non-equilibrium environment. When employing the master equation with no secular approximation, we find that the system coherence in our model, denoted by the off-diagonal terms in the reduced density matrix spanned by the eigenvectors of the system Hamiltonian, would survive after a long-time decoherence evolution. The absolute value of residual coherence in the system relies on different configurations of interaction channels between the system and the heat baths. We find that a large steady quantum coherence term can be achieved when the two atoms are resonant. The absolute value of quantum coherence decreases in the presence of additional atom-bath interaction channels. Our work sheds new light on the mechanism of steady-state coherence in microscopic quantum systems in non-equilibrium environments.     

Relaxation phenomena at criticality

The collective behaviour of statistical systems close to critical points is characterized by an extremely slow dynamics which, in the thermodynamic limit, eventually prevents them from relaxing to an equilibrium state after a change in the thermodynamic control parameters. The non-equilibrium evolution following this change displays some of the features typically observed in glassy materials, such as ageing, and it can be monitored via dynamic susceptibilities and correlation functions of the order parameter, the scaling behaviour of which is characterized by universal exponents, scaling functions, and amplitude ratios. This universality allows one to calculate these quantities in suitable simplified models and field-theoretical methods are a natural and viable approach for this analysis. In addition, if a statistical system is spatially confined, universal Casimir-like forces acting on the confining surfaces emerge and they build up in time when the temperature of the system is tuned to its critical value. We review here some of the theoretical results that have been obtained in recent years for universal quantities, such as the fluctuation-dissipation ratio, associated with the non-equilibrium critical dynamics, with particular focus on the Ising model with Glauber dynamics in the bulk. The non-equilibrium dynamics of the Casimir force acting in a film is discussed within the Gaussian model.     

Surface-directed spinodal decomposition and enrichment in fluid mixtures: Molecular dynamics simulations

We present results from molecular dynamics simulations for the non-equilibrium evolution of a binary fluid in the presence of a wetting surface. We study the pattern dynamics which results when a homogeneous fluid mixture is quenched to temperatures both above and below the critical temperature. Our extensive computer simulation results are in agreement with arguments based on Ginzburg-Landau theory.     

Lifetime distributions in the methods of non-equilibrium statistical operator and superstatistics

A family of non-equilibrium statistical operators is introduced which differ by the system age distribution over which the quasi-equilibrium (relevant) distribution is averaged. To describe the nonequilibrium states of a system we introduce a new thermodynamic parameter – the lifetime of a system. Superstatistics, introduced in works of Beck and Cohen [Physica A 322, 267 (2003)] as fluctuating quantities of intensive thermodynamical parameters, are obtained from the statistical distribution of lifetime (random time to the system degeneracy) considered as a thermodynamical parameter. It is suggested to set the mixing distribution of the fluctuating parameter in the superstatistics theory in the form of the piecewise continuous functions. The distribution of lifetime in such systems has different form on the different stages of evolution of the system. The account of the past stages of the evolution of a system can have a substantial impact on the non-equilibrium behaviour of the system in a present time moment.     

Inflation in entropic cosmology: Primordial perturbations and non-Gaussianities

We investigate thermal inflation in double-screen entropic cosmology. We find that its realization is general, resulting from the system evolution from non-equilibrium to equilibrium. Furthermore, going beyond the background evolution, we study the primordial curvature perturbations arising from the universe interior, as well as from the thermal fluctuations generated on the holographic screens. We show that the power spectrum is nearly scale-invariant with a red tilt, while the tensor-to-scalar ratio is in agreement with observations. Finally, we examine the non-Gaussianities of primordial curvature perturbations, and we find that a sizable value of the non-linearity parameter is possible due to holographic statistics on the outer screen.     

Density-Density Propagator of the Luttinger Model of Spin-Half Fermions after an Interaction Quench

Motivated by recent research achievement of quantum interacting systems in non-equilibrium, we consider a Luttinger model with a suddenly switched-on interaction proposed by Cazalilla [M.A. Cazalilla, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97 (2006) 156403]. In order to compare with real systems, we extend Cazalilla's scenario to the spinful system. To find the influence of initial states on the time evolution of some non-equilibrium systems, we mainly focus on the density-density propagator. By comparison and analysis, we discover the different behavior of this non-equilibrium system. Further, it is found that the propagator saves strong memory of initial state, and the effects of right-left interaction cancel out in total density-density propagator.     

Work and power production in non-equilibrium systems

We study work production in a Markov system obeying discrete stochastic dynamics. As our main result, we establish a new equality concerning the work produced during a spontaneous transformation in an isothermal, non-equilibrium system. Then we consider the overall evolution of a non-equilibrium system driven by an external parameter and generalize Jarzynski's equality for systems maintained out of equilibrium. That equality is recovered if the initial and final state distributions are equilibriums.     

超冷费米气体的膨胀动力学研究新进展

多体系统的非平衡动力学演化是当前物理学中最具挑战性的问题之一.超冷量子费米原子气体具有较强的可控性,是研究多体非平衡动力学的理想系统,可以用来模拟和理解大爆炸后的早期宇宙、重离子碰撞中产生的夸克-胶子以及核物理等动力学.一般多体系统演化是非常复杂的,往往需要利用对称性来研究.利用Feshbach共振可以制备标度不变的费米原子气体:无相互作用和幺正费米量子气体.当远离平衡态时,可利用普适的指数和函数来刻画,其动力学可以通过对系统的时空演化进行标度变换来识别.本文主要介绍近年来强相互作用超冷费米气体的膨胀动力学研究进展,包括原子气体的各向异性展开、标度动力学和Efimovian膨胀动力学.