{
  "id": "1206.1878",
  "version": "v2",
  "published": "2012-06-08T21:04:20.000Z",
  "updated": "2012-10-29T19:43:20.000Z",
  "title": "Random fields at a nonequilibrium phase transition",
  "authors": [
    "Hatem Barghathi",
    "Thomas Vojta"
  ],
  "comment": "5 pages, 4 eps figures included, final version as published",
  "journal": "Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 170603 (2012)",
  "doi": "10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.170603",
  "categories": [
    "cond-mat.stat-mech",
    "cond-mat.dis-nn"
  ],
  "abstract": "We investigate nonequilibrium phase transitions in the presence of disorder that locally breaks the symmetry between two equivalent macroscopic states. In low-dimensional equilibrium systems, such \"random-field\" disorder is known to have dramatic effects: It prevents spontaneous symmetry breaking and completely destroys the phase transition. In contrast, we demonstrate that the phase transition of the one-dimensional generalized contact process persists in the presence of random field disorder. The dynamics in the symmetry-broken phase becomes ultraslow and is described by a Sinai walk of the domain walls between two different absorbing states. We discuss the generality and limitations of our theory, and we illustrate our results by means of large-scale Monte-Carlo simulations.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v2",
      "updated": "2012-10-29T19:43:20.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "subjects": [
      "05.70.Ln",
      "02.50.Ey",
      "64.60.Ht"
    ],
    "keywords": [
      "nonequilibrium phase transition",
      "one-dimensional generalized contact process persists",
      "random field disorder",
      "large-scale monte-carlo simulations",
      "low-dimensional equilibrium systems"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "journal article"
    ],
    "publication": {
      "publisher": "APS",
      "journal": "Physical Review Letters",
      "year": 2012,
      "month": "Oct",
      "volume": 109,
      "number": 17,
      "pages": 170603
    },
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 5,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable",
      "adsabs": "2012PhRvL.109q0603B"
    }
  }
}