{
  "id": "1403.4744",
  "version": "v2",
  "published": "2014-03-19T09:28:40.000Z",
  "updated": "2014-06-30T12:09:36.000Z",
  "title": "Universal scaling effects of a temperature gradient at first-order transitions",
  "authors": [
    "Claudio Bonati",
    "Massimo D'Elia",
    "Ettore Vicari"
  ],
  "comment": "8 pages",
  "journal": "Phys. Rev. E 89, 062132 (2014)",
  "categories": [
    "cond-mat.stat-mech",
    "hep-lat"
  ],
  "abstract": "We study the effects of smooth inhomogeneities at first-order transitions. We show that a temperature gradient at a thermally-driven first-order transition gives rise to nontrivial universal scaling behaviors with respect to the length scale of the variation of the local temperature T(x). We propose a scaling ansatz to describe the crossover region at the surface where T(x)=Tc, where the typical discontinuities of a first-order transition are smoothed out. The predictions of this scaling theory are checked, and get strongly supported, by numerical results for the 2D Potts models, for a sufficiently large number of q-states to have first-order transitions. Comparing with analogous results at the 2D Ising transition, we note that the scaling behaviors induced by a smooth inhomogeneity appear quite similar in first-order and continuous transitions.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v2",
      "updated": "2014-06-30T12:09:36.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "subjects": [
      "64.60.De",
      "05.70.Jk",
      "05.10.Cc",
      "05.70.Fh"
    ],
    "keywords": [
      "first-order transition",
      "universal scaling effects",
      "temperature gradient",
      "smooth inhomogeneity appear quite similar",
      "nontrivial universal scaling behaviors"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "journal article"
    ],
    "publication": {
      "publisher": "APS",
      "journal": "Physical Review E",
      "doi": "10.1103/PhysRevE.89.062132",
      "year": 2014,
      "month": "Jun",
      "volume": 89,
      "number": 6,
      "pages": "062132"
    },
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 8,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable",
      "inspire": 1286765,
      "adsabs": "2014PhRvE..89f2132B"
    }
  }
}