Self-Similarity Breaking: Anomalous Nonequilibrium Finite-Size Scaling and Finite-Time Scaling

Symmetry breaking plays a pivotal role in modern physics.Although self-similarity is also a symmetry,and appears ubiquitously in nature,a fundamental question arises as to whether self-similarity breaking makes sense or not.Here,by identifying an important type of critical fluctuation,dubbed‘phases fluctuations’,and comparing the numerical results for those with self-similarity and those lacking self-similarity with respect to phases fluctuations,we show that self-similarity can indeed be broken,with significant consequences,at least in nonequilibrium situations.We find that the breaking of self-similarity results in new critical exponents,giving rise to a violation of the well-known finite-size scaling,or the less well-known finite-time scaling,and different leading exponents in either the ordered or the disordered phases of the paradigmatic Ising model on two-or three-dimensional finite lattices,when subject to the simplest nonequilibrium driving of linear heating or cooling through its critical point.This is in stark contrast to identical exponents and different amplitudes in usual critical phenomena.Our results demonstrate how surprising driven nonequilibrium critical phenomena can be.The application of this theory to other classical and quantum phase transitions is also anticipated.     

Phase transitions of two spin-1/2 Baxter–Wu layers coupled with Ising-type interactions

Using a Monte Carlo simulation and the single histogram reweighting technique,we study the critical behaviors and phase transitions of the Baxter-Wu(BW)model on a two-layer triangular lattice with Ising-type interlayer couplings.Via the finite-size analysis,we obtain the transition temperatures and critical exponents at repulsive and attractive interlayer couplings.The data for the repulsive interlayer coupling suggest continuous transitions,and the critical behaviors are the same as those of the 2D BW model,belonging to the four-state Potts universality class.The reduced energy cumulants and the histograms reveal that attractive coupling leads to weak firstorder phase transitions.The pseudocritical exponents with the existence of the interlayer couplings indicate that the first-order transition is very close to the critical point of the 2D standard BW model.     

The magnetoelectric properties of A- or B-site-doped PbVO3 films： A first-principles study

We employ first-principles calculations to study the magnetic and ferroelectric properties of PbVO3 with A （XA = Ca, Sr, Bi, Ba, and La） or B （XB = Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu） site dopants, with the aim of ascertaining a large ferroelectric polarization and a long magnetic order, or even a macro fen＇i/ferromagnetism, which is critical to their potential applications in magnetoelectronic devices. It is found that PbTXAVsO24 （XA =Ca, Sr, and Ba,） are inclined to maintain the spin glass and large ferroelectric polarization. The degenerated G- and C-antiferromagnetic （AFM） couplings in the ideal PbVO3 are broken up, accompanied by the loss of ferroelectric properties, when La or Bi is doped at the A site. In contrast, the above-mentioned 3d transition elements doped at the B site of PbVO3 could induce remnant magnetic moments and preserve the large ferroelectric polarization, except for Ni and Cu. The Fe or Cr at the B site clearly remove the degenerated G- and C-AFM coupling, but the nonmagnetic Ti cannot do so. For the Mn, Co, Ni, or Cu doped at the B sites, even the two-dimensional AFM ordering in PbVO3 is destabilized. The various doping effects are further discussed with inner strain and charge transfer.     

Short—Time Critical Behavior Affected by Weakly Long—Range Interactions

The theoretic renormalization group approach is applied to the study of short-time critical behavior of the Ginzburg-Landau model with weakly long-range interactions pσsps-p,The system initially at a high temperature is firstly quenched to the critical temperature Tc and then released to an evolution with a model A dynamics,A double expansion in ε=2σ-d and α=1-σ/2 with α of order ε of order ε is employed,where d is the spatial dimension.The asymptotic scaling laws and the initial slip exponents θ′and θ for the order parameter and the response function respectively are calculated to the second order in ε for σ close to 2.     

Spatial confinement tuning of quenched disorder effects and enhanced magnetoresistance in manganite nanowires

Complex oxides have rich functionalities and advantages for future technologies.In many systems,quenched disorder often holds the key to determine their physical properties,and these properties can be further tuned by chemical doping.However,understanding the role of quenched disorder is complicated because chemical doping simultaneously alters other physical variables such as local lattice distortions and electronic and magnetic environments.Here,we show that spatial confinement is an effective approach to tuning the level of quenched disorder in a complex-oxide system while leaving other physical variables largely undisturbed.Through the confinement of a manganite system down to quasi-one-dimensional nanowires,we observed that the nature of its metal-insulator phase transition exhibits a crossover from a discontinuous to a continuous characteristic,in close accordance with quenched disorder theories.We argue that the quenched disorder,finite size,and surface effects all contribute to our experimental observations.Noticeably,with reduced nanowire width,the magnetoresistance shows substantial enhancement at low temperatures.Our findings offer new insight into experimentally tuning the quenched disorder effect to achieve novel functionalities at reduced dimensions.     

Orbital Hybridization of the Ferroelectric Rb2Cd2 （SO4）3： Origin of Domain Walls

We perform first-principle calculations for the study of the orthorhombic Rb2Cd2 (SO4)3 structure. Electronic energy bands, total and partial densities of states are reported and analysed. It is found that oxygen atomic 2p electrons strongly hybridize with Rb/or Cd 4d and S 2p states, resulting in two-type ionic groups with weak couplings. It is shown that macroscopic domain walls originate from such weak-coupling ionic groups, arising at the cell boundaries. The asymmetric cation bonds (Rb-O and Cd-O) and the subsequent rotations of the S04 tetrahedra can lead to the driving force of the ferroelectric behaviour. The predicted pyroelectric current effects are observed experimentally in the ferroelectric phase.     

Phase transition and critical phenomenon of AdS black holes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity

Thermodynamics of phase transition for a black hole in 5D Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity with a negative cosmological constant is studied.As the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy is adopted,we find the heat capacity,volume expansion coefficient and isothermal compressibility are divergent at the critical points,which implies the existence of phase transitions.The fact that the phase transitions are indeed second order is revealed by studying the Ehrenfest’s equations and the Prigogine-Defay ratio.Furthermore near the critical points,we also explicitly calculate the critical exponents of the relevant thermodynamic quantities at fixed charge or fixed temperature.It is shown that the corresponding critical exponents satisfy the thermodynamic scaling law.The Generalized Homogeneous Function hypothesis is also checked by studying the Helmholtz free energy,which is shown to be consistent with the thermodynamic scaling law.     

Expanding the thermodynamical potential and analysis of the possible phase diagram of decon nement in the FL model

Decon nement phase transition is studied in the FL model at finite temperature and chemical potential. At MFT approximation, phase transition can only be first order in the whole μ-T phase plane. Using a Landau expansion, we further study the phase transition order and the possible phase diagram of decon nement. We discuss the possibilities of second order phase transitions in the FL model. From our analysis, if the cubic term in the Landau expansion could be cancelled by the higher order fluctuations, second order phase transition may occur. By an ansatz of the Landau parameters, we obtain a possible phase diagram with both the first and second order phase transitions, including the tri-critical point which is similar to that of the chiral phase transition.     

Expanding the thermodynamical potential and analysis of the possible phase diagram of deconfinement in the FL model

Deconfinement phase transition is studied in the FL model at finite temperature and chemical potential. At MFT approximation, phase transition can only be first order in the whole μ-T phase plane. Using a Landau expansion, we further study the phase transition order and the possible phase diagram of deconfinement. We discuss the possibilities of second order phase transitions in the FL model. From our analysis, if the cubic term in the Landau expansion could be cancelled by the higher order fluctuations, second order phase transition may occur. By an ansatz of the Landau parameters, we obtain a possible phase diagram with both the first and second order phase transitions, including the tri-critical point which is similar to that of the chiral phase transition.     

Dynamics of Non- interacting System with Long-Range Correlated Quenched Impurities

The theoretic renormalization group approach is applied to the study of the critical behavior of non-interacting system with long-range correlated quenched impurities, which has a power-like correlations r-(d-ρ). Totwo-loop order, the asymptotic scaling laws and the critical exponents are studied in the frame of a double (ε, ρ)expansion with ρ of order ε = 4 - d. In d ＜ 4, it is argued that the initial slip exponent θ = 0 together with the dynamicexponent z ＜ 2 is exact in this kind of random system.     

Zero—field—cooled and field—cooled magnetizations and magnetic susceptibility of itinerant ferromagnet SrRuO3

Zero-field-cooled(ZFC) magnetization,field-cooled(FC) magnetization,ac magnetic susceptibility and major hysteresis loops of itinerant ferromagnet SrRuO3 have been measured at magnetic ordering temperatures ranging from 5 to 160K.An empirical model is proposed to calculate the measured ZFC magnetization.The result indicates that the calculated ZFC magnetization compares well with the measured one.Based on the generalized Preisach model.both the ZFC and FC curves are reproduced by numerical simulations.The critical temperature and critical exponents are determined by measuring the ac magnetic susceptibility in different bias magnetic fields at temperatures in the vicinity of the point of phase transition.     

On the Critical Behavior of Gapped Gravitational Collapse in Confined Spacetime

The gravitational collapse of a massless scalar field enclosed with a perfectly reflecting wall in a spacetime with a cosmological constant Λ is investigated. The mass scaling for the gapped collapse MξAH-Mg ∝(∈c-∈)is confirmed and a new time scaling for the gapped collapse TAH-Tg ∝(∈c-∈)ζis found. For both the critical exponents,we find strong evidence to show that they are non-universal. Especially when Λ∈= 0, we find that both of these two critical exponents depend on the combination ΛR~2, where R is the radial position of the reflecting wall. We find an evolution of the critical exponent ξ from 0.37 in the confined asymptotic d S case with ΛR~2= 1.75 to 0.68 in the confined asymptotic Ad S case with ΛR~2=-1.75, while the critical exponent ζ varies from 0.10 to 0.26, which shows that the new critical behavior for the gapped collapse is essentially different from the Choptuik's case.     

Ferroelectric Transition and Curie-Weiss Behavior in Some Filled Tungsten Bronze Ceramics

Ferroelectric transitions in filled tungsten bronze ceramics Sr4R2Ti4Nb6O30, Sr5RTi3NbT030 （R=La, Nb, Sm ＆ Eu） and Ba4Nd2Ti4Nb6030 are investigated with differential scanning calorimetry （DSC） and the Curie- Weiss law fitting to the dielectric constant. The magnitude of the Curie Weiss constant C - 105 suggests displacement-type ferroelectric transition in the present compounds. The large AT difference between dielectric maximum temperature Tm and Curie-Weiss temperature To） values indicate the difficult formation of ferroeleetric domains or polar nanoregions in the present compounds and also the characteristics of the first order ferroelectric transition. Three categories are suggested for the ferroelectric transition in the above tungsten bronzes. The ferroelectric transition exhibits large thermal hysteresis. According to the DSC results, gradual recovery of the endothermic peak occurs after aging at temperature below the Curie point, indicating the gradual stability of the ferroelectric phase after cooling from the high-temperature para-electric phase. The relationship between the Curie- Weiss law fitting parameters and the nature of the ferroelectric transition is modified for the filled tungsten bronzes.     

Landau level transitions in InAs/AlSb/GaSb quantum wells

The electronic structure of InAs/AlSb/GaSb quantum wells embedded in AlSb barriers and in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field is studied theoretically within the 14-band ?? · ?? approach without making the axial approximation.At zero magnetic field, for a quantum well with a wide In As layer and a wide GaSb layer, the energy of an electron-like subband can be lower than the energy of hole-like subbands. As the strength of the magnetic field increases, the Landau levels of this electron-like subband grow in energy and intersect the Landau levels of the hole-like subbands. The electron–hole hybridization leads to a series of anti-crossing splittings of the Landau levels. The magnetic field dependence of some dominant transitions is shown with their corresponding initial-states and final-states indicated. The dominant transitions at high fields can be roughly viewed as two spin-split Landau level transitions with many electron–hole hybridization-induced splittings. When the magnetic field is tilted, the electron-like Landau level transitions show additional anti-crossing splittings due to the subband-Landau level coupling.     

Size Driven Ferroelectric—paraelectric Phase Transition from the Surface Energy Viewpoint

The size driven ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition in a ferroelectric of small size is studied within the framework of Landau phase transition theory.The transition is a consequence of the competition between decreasing the volume free energy by polarization and increasing the surface energy of the ferroelectric phase,which has a surface energy density higher than that in the paraelectric phase.A simple expression for the ferroelectric critical size as a function of the Landau free energy coefficients and the surface energy density is derived.     

Critical behavior and effect of Sr substitution in double perovskite Ca_2CrSbO_6

The double perovskite Ca2CrSbO6 exhibits a ferromagnetic long-range order below Tc=13 K and a saturation magnetization of 2.35μB at 2 K.In this study,the polycrystalline Ca2CrSbO6 is synthesized under high pressure and high temperature,and the critical behavior of the ferromagnetic material as well as the effects of the magnetic behavior due to the isovalent substitution of Sr2+for Ca2+is investigated.Also studied are the ferromagnetic criticality of the double perovskite Ca2CrSbO6 at the ferromagnetic transition temperature Tc≈12.6 K from the isotherms of magnetization M(H)via an iteration process and the Kouvel–Fisher method.The critical exponents associated with the transition are determined as follows:β=0.322,γ=1.241,andδ=4.84.The magnetization data in the vicinity of Tc can be scaled into two universal curves in the plot of M/|ε|βversus H/|ε|β+γ,whereε=T/Tc?1.The obtainedβandγvalues are consistent with the predicted values from a three-dimensional Ising model.The effects of Sr substitution on the double perovskite Ca2CrSbO6 are taken into consideration.As the Sr content increases,the(Ca2?xSrx)CrSbO6 polycrystal shows a continuous switch from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic behavior.     

Magnetocaloric effect and critical behavior of the Mn-rich itinerant material Mn_3GaC with enhanced ferromagnetic interaction

We revisit the reversible magnetocaloric effect of itinerant ferromagnet Mn3GaC near the ferromagnetic to paramagnetic phase transition by adopting the experimental and theoretical methods and critical behavior of Mn-rich Mn3GaC with an enhanced FM interaction.Landau theory model cannot account for temperature dependent magnetic entropy change which is estimated from thermal magnetic methods only considering magnetoelastic coupling and the electron-electron interaction,apart from molecular mean-field model.Critical behavior is studied by adopting the modified Arrott plot,Kouvel-Fisher plot,and critical isotherm analysis.With these critical exponents,experimental data below and above Tc collapse into two universal branches,fulfilling the single scaling equation m=f±(h),where m and h are renormalized magnetization and field.Critical exponents are confirmed by Widom scaling law and just between mean-field model and three-dimensional Heisenberg model,as the evidence for the existence of long-range ferromagnetic interaction.With increasing the Mn content,Tc increases monotonously and critical exponents increases accordingly.The exchange distance changes from J(r)~r^-4.68 for x=0 to J(r)~r^-4.71 for x=0.08,respectively,which suggests the competition of the Mn-Mn direct interaction and the itinerant Mn-C-Mn hybridization.The possible mechanism is proposed.     

Magnetoelectric Coupling Induced Electric Dipole Glass State in Heisenberg Spin Glass

Multiferroic behavior in an isotropic Heisenberg spin glass with Gaussian random fields, incorporated by magneto-electric coupling derived from the Landau symmetry argument, are investigated. Electric dipole glass transitions at finite temperature, due to coupling, are demonstrated by Monte Carlo simulation. This electric dipole glass state is solely ascribed to the coupling term with chiral symmetry of the magnetization, while the term associated with the spatial derivative of the squared magnetization has no contribution.     

Critical Behavior of the Gaussian Model with Periodic Interactions on Diamond—Type Hierarchical Lattices in External Magnetic Fields

The Gaussian spin model with periodic interactions on the diamond-type hierarchical lattices is constructed by generalizing that with uniform interactions on translationally invariant lattices according to a class of substitution sequences.The Gaussian distribution constants and imposed external magnetic fields are also periodic depending on the periodic characteristic of the interaction onds.The critical behaviors of this generalized Gaussian model in external magnetic fields are studied by the exact renormalization-group approach and spin rescaling method.The critical points and all the critical exponents are obtained.The critical behaviors are found to be determined by the Gaussian distribution constants and the fractal dimensions of the lattices.When all the Gaussian distribution constants are the same,the dependence of the critical exponents on the dimensions of the lattices is the same as that of the Gaussian model with uniform interactions on translationally invariant lattices.     

Criticality of Epidemic Spreading in Mobile Individuals Mediated by Environment

We investigate the critical behaviour of an epidemical model in a diffusive population mediated by a static vector environment on a 2D network. It is found that this model presents a dynamical phase transition from disease-free state to endemic state with a finite population density. Finite-size and short-time dynamic scaling relations are used to determine the critical population density and the critical exponents characterizing the behaviour near the critical point. The results are compatible with the universality class of directed percolation coupled to a conserved diffusive field with equal diffusion constants.