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SUMMARY:Dynamical Field Theories without Detailed Balance - Michael Cates\
 , University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20240515T130000Z
DTEND:20240515T140000Z
UID:TALK213451@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ronak M Soni
DESCRIPTION:Many condensed matter problems\, such as ordering of a classic
 al ferromagnet or fluid-fluid phase separation\, are described by dynamica
 l field theories in which a scalar field  obeys a noisy gradient flow gove
 rned by a quartic effective potential. These theories are called Model A a
 nd Model B for the cases of a non-conserved and conserved scalar\, respect
 ively. Traditionally\, such models are constructed to obey detailed balanc
 e\, so that the system evolves to the Boltzmann distribution\, giving time
 -reversible fluctuations at stationarity. Reaching the equilibrium state c
 an be nontrivial however: starting from a metastable uniform initial condi
 tion\, it requires an instanton to nucleates a droplet large enough to the
 n grow spontaneously. In recent years\, attention has shifted to systems w
 ithout detailed balance\, whose stationary states are non-Boltzmann and in
 volve continuous entropy production with time-asymmetric fluctuations. (On
 e example is the study of phase separation among self-propelled particles 
 such as swimming bacteria.)  To describe such cases\, we have recently int
 roduced variants of Models A and B that break detailed balance explicitly.
  I will outline some of the qualitative and quantitative novelties that ar
 ise in the critical phenomena\, steady states\, and instantons of these ne
 w theories.
LOCATION:MR2
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