Search

The past decade has witnessed the development of systematic effective theories for dissipative thermal systems. Here, we describe an analogous effective theory framework that applies to the classical stochastic dynamics of nonequilibrium systems. We illustrate this approach using a range of examples, including nonreciprocal (predator-prey) dynamics, dissipative and driven rigid-body motion, and active chiral fluids and solids. Many of these systems exhibit a generalized time-reversal symmetry, which plays a crucial role within our formalism, and in many cases can be implemented within the Martin-Siggia-Rose path integral. This effective theory formalism yields generalizations of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem and second law of thermodynamics valid out of equilibrium. By stipulating a stationary distribution and a set of symmetries -- rather than postulating the stochastic equations of motion directly -- this formalism provides an alternative route to building phenomenological models of driven and active matter. We hope that this approach facilitates a systematic investigation of the universality classes of active matter, and provides a common language for nonequilibrium many-body physics from high energy to condensed matter., Comment: 74 pages, 6 figures

We present the hydrodynamics of fluids in three spatial dimensions with helical symmetry, wherein only a linear combination of a rotation and translation is conserved in one of the three directions. The hydrodynamic degrees of freedom consist of scalar densities (e.g. energy or charge) along with two velocity fields transverse to the helical axis when the corresponding momenta are conserved. Nondissipative hydrodynamic coefficients reminiscent of chiral vortical coefficients arise. We write down microscopic Hamiltonian dynamical systems exhibiting helical symmetry, and we demonstrate using kinetic theory that these systems will generically exhibit the new helical phenomena that we predicted within hydrodynamics. We also confirm our findings using modern effective field theory techniques for hydrodynamics. We postulate regimes where pinned cholesteric liquid crystals may possess transport coefficients of a helical fluid, which appear to have been overlooked in previous literature., Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure

Hydrodynamic electrons flowing through a two-dimensional channel are predicted to undergo a plasma instability above a critical drift velocity. This Dyakonov-Shur (DS) instability terminates as a coherent nonlinear oscillator which shows promise as a source of radiation that could fill the so-called TeraHertz gap. In this work, we study radial flow in a Corbino disk, and demonstrate how the DS instability is substantially enhanced in this geometry, both in terms of a lower critical drift velocity and a higher generated power. Interestingly, hydrodynamic electron flows were recently reported in a graphene sample of this geometry, and our results are therefore directly relevant to current efforts to detect this experimentally elusive phenomenon. The analysis is based on a hydrodynamic approach and features both linearized calculations as well as full numerical simulations of the Navier-Stokes equation., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures