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M. B. and J. D. acknowledge support by the state of BadenWurttemberg through bwHPCand the German Research Foundation (DFG) through grant no INST 39/963-1 FUGG (bw ForCluster NEMO) and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) via grant WO 2410/2-1 within the framework of the Research Unit FOR 5099 ``Reducing complexity of nonequilibrium'' (project No. 431945604). P. I. H. and A. M.-J acknowledge the financial support provided by the Spanish Ministry and Agencia Estatal de Investigacio ' n (AEI) through Grants PID2020-113681GB-I00 and FIS2017-84256-P, the Junta de Andaluci ' a and European Regional Development Fund Consejeri ' a de Conocimiento, Investigacion y Universidad, Junta de Andaluci ' a (Projects PY20-00241, A-FQM-90-UGR20, A-FQM175-UGR18 and SOMM17/6105/UGR), and the program Visiting Scholars of the University of Granada (Project PPVS2018-08). Finally, we thank Nils Goth for inspiring discussions and useful comments, and the computational resources and assistance provided by PROTEUS, the supercomputing center of Institute Carlos I for Theoretical and Computational Physics at the University of Granada, Spain., We employ Reactive Dynamical Density Functional Theory (R-DDFT) and Reactive Brownian Dynamics (R-BD) simulations to investigate the dynamics of a suspension of active soft Gaussian colloids with binary interaction switching, i.e., a one-component colloidal system in which every particle stochastically switches at predefined rates between two interaction states with different mobility. Using R-DDFT we extend a theory previously developed to access the dynamics of inhomogeneous liquids [Archer et al., Phys. Rev. E: Stat., Nonlinear, Soft Matter Phys., 2007, 75, 040501] to study the influence of the switching activity on the self and distinct part of the Van Hove function in bulk solution, and determine the corresponding mean squared displacement of the switching particles. Our results demonstrate that, even though the average diffusion coefficient is not affected by the switching activity, it significantly modifies the non-equilibrium dynamics and diffusion coefficients of the individual particles, leading to a crossover from short to long times, with a regime for intermediate times showing anomalous diffusion. In addition, the self-part of the van Hove function has a Gaussian form at short and long times, but becomes non-Gaussian at intermediates ones, having a crossover between short and large displacements. The corresponding self-intermediate scattering function shows the two-step relaxation patters typically observed in soft materials with heterogeneous dynamics such as glasses and gels. We also introduce a phenomenological Continuous Time Random Walk (CTRW) theory to understand the heterogeneous diffusion of this system. R-DDFT results are in excellent agreement with R-BD simulations and the analytical predictions of CTRW theory, thus confirming that R-DDFT constitutes a powerful method to investigate not only the structure and phase behavior, but also the dynamical properties of non-equilibrium active switching colloidal suspensions., BadenWurttemberg through bwHPC, German Research Foundation (DFG) INST 39/963-1 FUGG WO 2410/2-1 FOR 5099 431945604, Spanish Ministry and Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) PID2020-113681GB-I00 FIS2017-84256-P, Junta de Andalucia, European Regional Development Fund Consejeria de Conocimiento, Investigacion y Universidad, Junta de Andalucia PY20-00241 A-FQM-90-UGR20 A-FQM175-UGR18 SOMM17/6105/UGR, University of Granada PPVS2018-08

Hard particle systems are among the most successful, inspiring and prolific models of physics. They contain the essential ingredients to understand a large class of complex phenomena, from phase transitions to glassy dynamics, jamming, or the physics of liquid crystals and granular materials, to mention just a few. As we discuss in this paper, their study also provides crucial insights on the problem of transport out of equilibrium. A main tool in this endeavour are computer simulations of hard particles. Here we review some of our work in this direction, focusing on the hard disks fluid as a model system. In this quest we will address, using extensive numerical simulations, some of the key open problems in the physics of transport, ranging from local equilibrium and Fourier’s law to the transition to convective flow in the presence of gravity, the efficiency of boundary dissipation, or the universality of anomalous transport in low dimensions. In particular, we probe numerically the macroscopic local equilibrium hypothesis, which allows to measure the fluid’s equation of state in nonequilibrium simulations, uncovering along the way subtle nonlocal corrections to local equilibrium and a remarkable bulk-boundary decoupling phenomenon in fluids out of equilibrium. We further show that the the hydrodynamic profiles that a system develops when driven out of equilibrium by an arbitrary temperature gradient obey universal scaling laws, a result that allows the determination of transport coefficients with unprecedented precission and proves that Fourier’s law remains valid in highly nonlinear regimes. Switching on a gravity field against the temperature gradient, we investigate numerically the transition to convective flow. We uncover a surprising two-step transition scenario with two different critical thresholds for the hot bath temperature, a first one where convection kicks but gravity hinders heat transport, and a second critical temperature where a percolation transition of streamlines connecting the hot and cold baths triggers efficient convective heat transport. We also address numerically the efficiency of boundary heat baths to dissipate the energy provided by a bulk driving mechanism. As a bonus track, we depart from the hard disks model to study anomalous transport in a related hard-particle system, the 1d diatomic hard-point gas. We show unambiguously that the universality conjectured for anomalous transport in 1d breaks down for this model, calling into question recent theoretical predictions and offering a new perspective on anomalous transport in low dimensions. Our results show how carefully-crafted numerical simulations of simple hard particle systems can lead to unexpected discoveries in the physics of transport, paving the way to further advances in nonequilibrium physics.

Using tools from large deviation theory, we study fluctuations of the heat current in a model of $d$-dimensional incompressible fluid driven out of equilibrium by a temperature gradient. We find that the most probable temperature fields sustaining atypical values of the global current can be naturally classified in an infinite set of curves, allowing us to exhaustively analyze their topological properties and to define universal profiles onto which all optimal fields collapse. We also compute the statistics of empirical heat current, where we find remarkable logarithmic tails for large current fluctuations orthogonal to the thermal gradient. Finally, we determine explicitly a number of cumulants of the current distribution, finding remarkable relations between them., 18 pages, 3 figures

Interacting particle systems with many degrees of freedom may undergo phase transitions to sustain atypical fluctuations of dynamical observables such as the current or the activity. This leads in some cases to symmetry-broken space-time trajectories which enhance the probability of such events due to the emergence of ordered structures. Despite their conceptual and practical importance, these dynamical phase transitions (DPTs) at the trajectory level are difficult to characterize due to the low probability of their occurrence. However, during the last decade advanced computational techniques have been developed to measure rare events in simulations of many-particle systems that allow for the first time the direct observation and characterization of these DPTs. Here we review the application of a particular rare-event simulation technique, based on cloning Monte Carlo methods, to characterize DPTs in paradigmatic stochastic lattice gases. In particular, we describe in detail some tricks and tips of the trade, paying special attention to the measurement of order parameters capturing the physics of the different DPTs, as well as to the finite-size effects (both in the system size and number of clones) that affect the measurements. Overall, we provide a consistent picture of the phenomenology associated with DPTs and their measurement., 26 pages, 17 figures

We introduce a general class of stochastic lattice gas models, and derive their fluctuating hydrodynamics description in the large size limit under a local equilibrium hypothesis. The model consists in energetic particles on a lattice subject to exclusion interactions, which move and collide stochastically with energy-dependent rates. The resulting fluctuating hydrodynamics equations exhibit nonlinear coupled particle and energy transport, including particle currents due to temperature gradients (Soret effect) and energy flow due to concentration gradients (Dufour effect). The microscopic dynamical complexity is condensed in just two matrices of transport coefficients: the diffusivity matrix (or equivalently the Onsager matrix) generalizing Fick-Fourier's law, and the mobility matrix controlling current fluctuations. Both transport coefficients are coupled via a fluctuation-dissipation theorem, suggesting that the noise terms affecting the local currents have Gaussian properties. We further prove the positivity of entropy production in terms of the microscopic dynamics. The so-called kinetic exclusion process has as limiting cases two of the most paradigmatic models of nonequilibrium physics, namely the symmetric simple exclusion process of particle diffusion and the Kipnis-Marchioro-Presutti model of heat flow, making it the ideal testbed where to further develop modern theories of nonequilibrium behavior., 21 pages, 1 fig

Driven diffusive systems may undergo phase transitions to sustain atypical values of the current. This leads in some cases to symmetry-broken space-time trajectories which enhance the probability of such fluctuations. Here we shed light on both the macroscopic large deviation properties and the microscopic origin of such spontaneous symmetry breaking in the open weakly asymmetric exclusion process. By studying the joint fluctuations of the current and a collective order parameter, we uncover the full dynamical phase diagram for arbitrary boundary driving, which is reminiscent of a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry-breaking transition. The associated joint large deviation function becomes non-convex below the critical point, where a Maxwell-like violation of the additivity principle is observed. At the microscopic level, the dynamical phase transition is linked to an emerging degeneracy of the ground state of the microscopic generator, from which the optimal trajectories in the symmetry-broken phase follow. In addition, we observe this new symmetry-breaking phenomenon in extensive rare-event simulations, confirming our macroscopic and microscopic results., Main: 7 pages + 4 figs. Supplemental Material: 19 pages + 3 figures

Controlling transport in quantum systems holds the key to many promising quantum technologies. Here we review the power of symmetry as a resource to manipulate quantum transport, and apply these ideas to engineer novel quantum devices. Using tools from open quantum systems and large deviation theory, we show that symmetry-mediated control of transport is enabled by a pair of twin dynamic phase transitions in current statistics, accompanied by a coexistence of different transport channels. By playing with the symmetry decomposition of the initial state, one can modulate the importance of the different transport channels and hence control the flowing current. Motivated by the problem of energy harvesting we illustrate these ideas in open quantum networks, an analysis which leads to the design of a symmetry-controlled quantum thermal switch. We review an experimental setup recently proposed for symmetry-mediated quantum control in the lab based on a linear array of atom-doped optical cavities, and the possibility of using transport as a probe to uncover hidden symmetries, as recently demonstrated in molecular junctions, is also discussed. Other symmetry-mediated control mechanisms are also described. Overall, these results demonstrate the importance of symmetry not only as an organizing principle in physics but also as a tool to control quantum systems., Comment: Review paper, 87 pages, 29 figs. Accepted in Advances in Physics

Since the discovery of long-time tails, it has been clear that Fourier's law in low dimensions is typically anomalous, with a size-dependent heat conductivity, though the nature of the anomaly remains puzzling. The conventional wisdom, supported by renormalization-group arguments and mode-coupling approximations within fluctuating hydrodynamics, is that the anomaly is universal in 1d momentum-conserving systems and belongs in the Levy/Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class. Here we challenge this picture by using a novel scaling method to show unambiguously that universality breaks down in the paradigmatic 1d diatomic hard-point fluid. Hydrodynamic profiles for a broad set of gradients, densities and sizes all collapse onto an universal master curve, showing that (anomalous) Fourier's law holds even deep into the nonlinear regime. This allows to solve the macroscopic transport problem for this model, a solution which compares flawlessly with data and, interestingly, implies the existence of a bound on the heat current in terms of pressure. These results question the renormalization-group and mode-coupling universality predictions for anomalous Fourier's law in 1d, offering a new perspective on transport in low dimensions., Comment: 10 pages + 6 figs + Supplementary Material (7 pages + 6 figs)

Dynamical phase transitions (DPTs) in the space of trajectories are one of the most intriguing phenomena of nonequilibrium physics, but their nature in realistic high-dimensional systems remains puzzling. Here we observe for the first time a DPT in the current vector statistics of an archetypal two-dimensional (2d) driven diffusive system, and characterize its properties using macroscopic fluctuation theory. The complex interplay among the external field, anisotropy and vector currents in 2d leads to a rich phase diagram, with different symmetry-broken fluctuation phases separated by lines of first- and second-order DPTs. Remarkably, different types of 1d order in the form of jammed density waves emerge to hinder transport for low-current fluctuations, revealing a connection between rare events and self-organized structures which enhance their probability., 6 pages + 3 figures + Supplementary Material (11 pages + 6 figures)

Macroscopic fluctuations have become an essential tool to understand physics far from equilibrium due to the link between their statistics and nonequilibrium ensembles. The optimal path leading to a fluctuation encodes key information on this problem, shedding light on e.g. the physics behind the enhanced probability of rare events out of equilibrium, the possibility of dynamic phase transitions and new symmetries. This makes the understanding of the properties of these optimal paths a central issue. Here we derive a fundamental relation which strongly constraints the architecture of these optimal paths for general $d$-dimensional nonequilibrium diffusive systems, and implies a non-trivial structure for the dominant current vector fields. Interestingly, this general relation (which encompasses and explains previous results) makes manifest the spatio-temporal non-locality of the current statistics and the associated optimal trajectories., Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure

Understanding the physics of non-equilibrium systems remains as one of the major open questions in statistical physics. This problem can be partially handled by investigating macroscopic fluctuations of key magnitudes that characterise the non-equilibrium behaviour of the system of interest; their statistics, associated structures and microscopic origin. During the last years, some new general and powerful methods have appeared to delve into fluctuating behaviour that have drastically changed the way to address this problem in the realm of diffusive systems: macroscopic fluctuation theory (MFT) and a set of advanced computational techniques that make it possible to measure the probability of rare events. Notwithstanding, a satisfactory theory is still lacking in a particular case of intrinsically non-equilibrium systems, namely those in which energy is not conserved but dissipated continuously in the bulk of the system (e.g. granular media). In this work, we put forward the dissipated energy as a relevant quantity in this case and analyse in a pedagogical way its fluctuations, by making use of a suitable generalisation of macroscopic fluctuation theory to driven dissipative media., Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures

The additivity principle (AP) allows to compute the current distribution in many one-dimensional (1d) nonequilibrium systems. Here we extend this conjecture to general d-dimensional driven diffusive systems, and validate its predictions against both numerical simulations of rare events and microscopic exact calculations of three paradigmatic models of diffusive transport in d=2. Crucially, the existence of a structured current vector field at the fluctuating level, coupled to the local mobility, turns out to be essential to understand current statistics in d>1. We prove that, when compared to the straightforward extension of the AP to high-d, the so-called weak AP always yields a better minimizer of the macroscopic fluctuation theory action for current statistics., Main: 6 pages + 2 figs. Supplementary material: 7 pages + 4 figures

Using computer simulations, we study metastability in a two-dimensional Ising ferromagnet relaxing toward a nonequilibrium steady state. The interplay between thermal and nonequilibrium fluctuations induces resonant and scale-invariant phenomena not observed in equilibrium. In particular, we measure noise-enhanced stability of the metastable state in a nonequilibrium environment. The limit of metastability, or pseudospinodal separating the metastable regime from the unstable one, exhibits reentrant behavior as a function of temperature for strong nonequilibrium conditions. Furthermore, when subject to both open boundaries and nonequilibrium fluctuations, the metastable system decays via well-defined avalanches. These exhibit power-law size and lifetime distributions, resembling the scale-free avalanche dynamics observed in real magnets and other complex systems. We expect some of these results to be verifiable in actual (impure) specimens.

We studied phase separation in a particle interacting system under a large drive along x. We here identify the basic growth mechanisms, and demonstrate time self-similarity, finite-size scaling, as well as other interesting features of both the structure factor and the scaling function. We also show that, at late t in two dimensions, there is a unique t-dependent length increasing l_y(t) \sim t^{1/3} for macroscopic systems. Our results, which follow as a direct consequence of the underlying anisotropy, may characterize a class of nonequilibrium situations., 7 pages, 3 figures

When driven out of equilibrium by a temperature gradient, fluids respond by developing a nontrivial, inhomogeneous structure according to the governing macroscopic laws. Here we show that such structure obeys strikingly simple scaling laws arbitrarily far from equilibrium, provided that both macroscopic local equilibrium and Fourier's law hold. Extensive simulations of hard disk fluids confirm the scaling laws even under strong temperature gradients, implying that Fourier's law remains valid in this highly nonlinear regime, with putative corrections absorbed into a nonlinear conductivity functional. In addition, our results show that the scaling laws are robust in the presence of strong finite-size effects, hinting at a subtle bulk-boundary decoupling mechanism which enforces the macroscopic laws on the bulk of the finite-sized fluid. This allows to measure for the first time the marginal anomaly of the heat conductivity predicted for hard disks., Comment: 5 pages + 5 figures + 3 pages of supplementary material

Symmetry is a powerful concept in physics, and its recent application to understand nonequilibrium behavior is providing deep insights and groundbreaking exact results. Here we show how to harness symmetry to control transport and statistics in open quantum systems. Such control is enabled by a first-order-type dynamic phase transition in current statistics and the associated coexistence of different transport channels (or nonequilibrium steady states) classified by symmetry. Microreversibility then ensues, via the Gallavotti-Cohen fluctuation theorem, a twin dynamic phase transition for rare current fluctuations. Interestingly, the symmetry present in the initial state is spontaneously broken at the fluctuating level, where the quantum system selects the symmetry sector that maximally facilitates a given fluctuation. We illustrate these results in a qubit network model motivated by the problem of coherent energy harvesting in photosynthetic complexes, and introduce the concept of a symmetry-controlled quantum thermal switch, suggesting symmetry-based design strategies for quantum devices with controllable transport properties., 12 pages, 6 figures

We consider fluctuations of the dissipated energy in nonlinear driven diffusive systems subject to bulk dissipation and boundary driving. With this aim, we extend the recently-introduced macroscopic fluctuation theory to nonlinear driven dissipative media, starting from the fluctuating hydrodynamic equations describing the system mesoscopic evolution. Interestingly, the action associated to a path in mesoscopic phase-space, from which large-deviation functions for macroscopic observables can be derived, has the same simple form as in non-dissipative systems. This is a consequence of the quasi-elasticity of microscopic dynamics, required in order to have a nontrivial competition between diffusion and dissipation at the mesoscale. Euler-Lagrange equations for the optimal density and current fields that sustain an arbitrary dissipation fluctuation are also derived. A perturbative solution thereof shows that the probability distribution of small fluctuations is always gaussian, as expected from the central limit theorem. On the other hand, strong separation from the gaussian behavior is observed for large fluctuations, with a distribution which shows no negative branch, thus violating the Gallavotti-Cohen fluctuation theorem as expected from the irreversibility of the dynamics. The dissipation large-deviation function exhibits simple and general scaling forms for weakly and strongly dissipative systems, with large fluctuations favored in the former case but heavily supressed in the latter. (...) [see complete abstract by downloading the paper], Comment: 24 pages

Understanding the physics of nonequilibrium systems remains as one of the major challenges of theoretical physics. This problem can be cracked in part by investigating the macroscopic fluctuations of the currents characterizing nonequilibrium behavior, their statistics and associated structures. This fundamental line of research has been severely hampered by the overwhelming complexity of this problem. However, during the last years two new general methods have appeared to investigate fluctuating behavior that are changing radically our understanding of nonequilibrium physics: a powerful macroscopic fluctuation theory (MFT) and a set of advanced computational techniques to measure rare events. In this work we study the statistics of current fluctuations in nonequilibrium diffusive systems, using macroscopic fluctuation theory as theoretical framework, and advanced Monte Carlo simulations of several stochastic lattice gases as a laboratory to test the emerging picture. Our quest will bring us from (1) the confirmation of an additivity conjecture in one and two dimensions, which considerably simplifies the MFT complex variational problem to compute the thermodynamics of currents, to (2) the discovery of novel isometric fluctuation relations, which opens an unexplored route toward a deeper understanding of nonequilibrium physics by bringing symmetry principles to the realm of fluctuations, and to (3) the observation of coherent structures in fluctuations, which appear via dynamic phase transitions involving a spontaneous symmetry breaking event at the fluctuating level. The clear-cut observation, measurement and characterization of these unexpected phenomena, well described by MFT, strongly support this theoretical scheme as the natural theory to understand the thermodynamics of currents in nonequilibrium diffusive media, opening new avenues of research in nonequilibrium physics., Comment: 41 pages, 10 figures

We consider fluctuations of the time-averaged current in the one-dimensional weakly-asymmetric exclusion process on a ring. The optimal density profile which sustains a given fluctuation exhibits an instability for low enough currents, where it becomes time-dependent. This instability corresponds to a dynamical phase transition in the system fluctuation behavior: while typical current fluctuations result from the sum of weakly-correlated local events and are still associated with the flat, steady-state density profile, for currents below a critical threshold the system self-organizes into a macroscopic jammed state in the form of a coherent traveling wave, that hinders transport of particles and thus facilitates a time-averaged current fluctuation well below the average current. We analyze in detail this phenomenon using advanced Monte Carlo simulations, and work out macroscopic fluctuation theory predictions, finding very good agreement in all cases. In particular, we study not only the current large deviation function, but also the critical current threshold, the associated optimal density profiles and the traveling wave velocity, analyzing in depth finite-size effects and hence providing a detailed characterization of the dynamical transition., 12 pages, 6 figures

We consider a general class of nonlinear diffusive models with bulk dissipation and boundary driving, and derive its hydrodynamic description in the large size limit. Both the average macroscopic behavior and the fluctuating properties of the hydrodynamic fields are obtained from the microscopic dynamics. This analysis yields a fluctuating balance equation for the local energy density at the mesoscopic level, characterized by two terms: (i) a diffusive term, with a current that fluctuates around its average behavior given by nonlinear Fourier's law, and (ii) a dissipation term which is a general function of the local energy density. The quasi-elasticity of microscopic dynamics, required in order to have a nontrivial competition between diffusion and dissipation in the macroscopic limit, implies a noiseless dissipation term in the balance equation, so dissipation fluctuations are enslaved to those of the density field. The microscopic complexity is thus condensed in just three transport coefficients, the diffusivity, the mobility and a new dissipation coefficient, which are explicitly calculated within a local equilibrium approximation. Interestingly, the diffusivity and mobility coefficients obey an Einstein relation despite the fully nonequilibrium character of the problem. The general theory here presented is applied to a particular albeit broad family of systems, the simplest nonlinear dissipative variant of the so-called KMP model for heat transport. The theoretical predictions are compared to extensive numerical simulations, and an excellent agreement is found., 18 pages, 11 figures

We analyze the spread of a localized peak of energy into vacuum for nonlinear diffusive processes. In contrast with standard diffusion, the nonlinearity results in a compact wave with a sharp front separating the perturbed region from vacuum. In $d$ spatial dimensions, the front advances as $t^{1/(2+da)}$ according to hydrodynamics, with $a$ the nonlinearity exponent. We show that fluctuations in the front position grow as $\sim t^{\mu} \eta$, where $\mu, Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We analyze the fluctuations of the dissipated energy in a simple and general model where dissipation, diffusion, and driving are the key ingredients. The full dissipation distribution, which follows from hydrodynamic fluctuation theory, shows non-Gaussian tails and no negative branch, thus violating the fluctuation theorem as expected from the irreversibility of the dynamics. It exhibits simple scaling forms in the weak- and strong-dissipation limits, with large fluctuations favored in the former case but strongly suppressed in the latter. The typical path associated with a given dissipation fluctuation is also analyzed in detail. Our results, confirmed in extensive simulations, strongly support the validity of hydrodynamic fluctuation theory to describe fluctuating behavior in driven dissipative media. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación FIS2008-01339 FIS2009-08451 Junta de Andalucía P07-FQM02725 P09-FQM4682

Hard Disks system is a paradicmatic model well suited, numericaly, to test new approaches to nonequi‐librium fenomena, being also easy and fast to simulate due to efficient event driven algorithms present in the literature. In this poster we study several properties of the model under a temperature gradient on the stationary regime. In this situation the sistem has well defined gradients in temperatures and densities allowing us to calculate experimentaly the thermal conductivity. We found this result compatible with the Enskog expresion even for large gradients. We also check that Henderson’s state equation, although is an expresion derived under equilibrium conditions, is valid in our system for a wide range of temperatures gradients. We explain this fact showing that the system reach a local thermal equilibrium. Finaly we focus on the role of fluctuations of the energy current finding good agreement with the, recently introduced, Isometric Fluctuation Relation (IFR). We conclude that IFR also stands in...

In this notes we study the large deviations of the time‐averaged current in the two‐dimensional (2D) Kipnis‐Marchioro‐Presutti model of energy transport when subject to a boundary gradient. We use the tools of hydrodynamic fluctuation theory, supplemented with an appropriate generalization of the additivity principle. As compared to its one‐dimensional counterpart, which amounts to assume that the optimal profiles responsible of a given current fluctuation are time‐independent, the 2D additivity conjecture requires an extra assumption, i.e. that the optimal, divergence‐free current vector field associated to a given fluctuation of the time‐averaged current is in fact constant across the system. Within this context we show that the current distribution exhibits in general non‐Gaussian tails. The ensuing optimal density profile can be either monotone for small current fluctuations, or non‐monotone with a single maximum for large enough current deviations. Furthermore, this optimal profile remains invariant under arbitrary rotations of the current vector, providing a detailed example of the recently introduced Isometric Fluctuation Relation.

In this work we study numerically and analytically current fluctuations in the two‐dimensional Kipnis‐Marchioro‐Presutti (KMP) model of heat conduction. For that purpose, we use a recently introduced algorithm which allows the direct evaluation of large deviations functions. We compare our results with predictions based on the Hydrodynamic Fluctuation Theory (HFT) of Bertini and coworkers, finding very good agreement in a wide interval of current fluctuations. We also verify the existence of a well‐defined temperature profile associated to a given current fluctuation which depends exclusively on the magnitude of the current vector, not on its orientation. This confirms the recently introduced Isometric Fluctuation Relation (IFR), which results from the time‐reversibility of the dynamics, and includes as a particular instance the Gallavotti‐Cohen fluctuation theorem in this context but adds a completely new perspective on the high level of symmetry imposed by timereversibility on the statistics of nonequil...

Phase transitions not allowed in equilibrium steady states may happen however at the fluctuating level. We observe for the first time this striking and general phenomenon measuring current fluctuations in an isolated diffusive system. While small fluctuations result from the sum of weakly-correlated local events, for currents above a critical threshold the system self-organizes into a coherent traveling wave which facilitates the current deviation by gathering energy in a localized packet, thus breaking translation invariance. This results in Gaussian statistics for small fluctuations but non-Gaussian tails above the critical current. Our observations, which agree with predictions derived from hydrodynamic fluctuation theory, strongly suggest that rare events are generically associated with coherent, self-organized patterns which enhance their probability., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

Large fluctuations, play an important role in many fields of science as they crucially determine the fate of a system. The statistics of these fluctuations encodes essential information on the physics of the system at hand. This is particularly important in systems far from equilibrium, where no general theory exists up to date capable of predicting macroscopic and fluctuating behavior in terms of microscopic physics.The study of fluctuations far from equilibrium may open the door to such general theory. In this work we follow this path by studying the fluctuations of the dissipated energy in an oversimplified model of a granular system. The model, first proposed and solved by Levanony and Levine [1], is a simple one dimensional diffusive lattice system which includes energy dissipation as a main ingredient. When subject to boundary heat baths, the system reaches an steady state characterized by a highly nonlinear temperature profile and a nonzero average energy dissipation. For long but finite times, the time‐averaged dissipated energy fluctuates, obeying a large deviation principle. We study the large deviation function (LDF) of the dissipated energy by means of advanced Monte Carlo techniques [2], arriving to the following results: (i) the LDF of the dissipated energy has only a positive branch, meaning that for long times only positive dissipation is expected, (ii) as a result of microscopic time‐irreversibility, the LDF does not obeys the Gallavotti‐Cohen fluctuation theorem, (iii) the LDF is Gaussian around the average dissipation, but non‐Gaussian, asymmetric tails quickly develop away from the average, and (iv) the granular system adopts a precise optimal profile in order to facilitate a given dissipation fluctuation, different from the steady profile. We compare our numerical results with predictions based on hydrodynamic fluctuation theory [3], finding good agreement.

Fluctuations arise universally in Nature as a reflection of the discrete microscopic world at the macroscopic level. Despite their apparent noisy origin, fluctuations encode fundamental aspects of the physics of the system at hand, crucial to understand irreversibility and nonequilibrium behavior. In order to sustain a given fluctuation, a system traverses a precise optimal path in phase space. Here we show that by demanding invariance of optimal paths under symmetry transformations, new and general fluctuation relations valid arbitrarily far from equilibrium are unveiled. This opens an unexplored route toward a deeper understanding of nonequilibrium physics by bringing symmetry principles to the realm of fluctuations. We illustrate this concept studying symmetries of the current distribution out of equilibrium. In particular we derive an isometric fluctuation relation which links in a strikingly simple manner the probabilities of any pair of isometric current fluctuations. This relation, which results from the time-reversibility of the dynamics, includes as a particular instance the Gallavotti-Cohen fluctuation theorem in this context but adds a completely new perspective on the high level of symmetry imposed by time-reversibility on the statistics of nonequilibrium fluctuations. The new symmetry implies remarkable hierarchies of equations for the current cumulants and the nonlinear response coefficients, going far beyond Onsager's reciprocity relations and Green-Kubo formulae. We confirm the validity of the new symmetry relation in extensive numerical simulations, and suggest that the idea of symmetry in fluctuations as invariance of optimal paths has far-reaching consequences in diverse fields., 8 pages, 4 figures

We use computer simulations to study the dynamics of a physical gel at high densities where gelation and the glass transition interfere. We report and provide detailed physical understanding of complex relaxation patterns for time correlation functions which generically decay in a three-step process. For certain combinations of parameters we find logarithmic decays of the correlators and subdiffusive particle motion., 4 pages, 5 figures

Most systems, when pushed out of equilibrium, respond by building up currents of locally conserved observables. Understanding how microscopic dynamics determines the averages and fluctuations of these currents is one of the main open problems in nonequilibrium statistical physics. The additivity principle is a theoretical proposal that allows to compute the current distribution in many one-dimensional nonequilibrium systems. Using simulations, we validate this conjecture in a simple and general model of energy transport, both in the presence of a temperature gradient and in canonical equilibrium. In particular, we show that the current distribution displays a Gaussian regime for small current fluctuations, as prescribed by the central limit theorem, and non-Gaussian (exponential) tails for large current deviations, obeying in all cases the Gallavotti-Cohen fluctuation theorem. In order to facilitate a given current fluctuation, the system adopts a well-defined temperature profile different from that of the steady state and in accordance with the additivity hypothesis predictions. System statistics during a large current fluctuation is independent of the sign of the current, which implies that the optimal profile (as well as higher-order profiles and spatial correlations) are invariant upon current inversion. We also demonstrate that finite-time joint fluctuations of the current and the profile are well described by the additivity functional. These results suggest the additivity hypothesis as a general and powerful tool to compute current distributions in many nonequilibrium systems.

We study two different types of systems with many absorbing states (with and without a conservation law) and scrutinize the effect of walls/boundaries (either absorbing or reflecting) into them. In some cases, non-trivial structured absorbing configurations (characterized by a background field) develop around the wall. We study such structures using a mean-field approach as well as computer simulations. The main results are: i) for systems in the directed percolation class, a very fast (exponential) convergence of the background to its bulk value is observed; ii) for systems with a conservation law, power-law decaying landscapes are induced by both types of walls: while for absorbing walls this effect is already present in the mean-field approximation, for reflecting walls the structured background is a noise-induced effect. The landscapes are shown to converge to their asymptotic bulk values with an exponent equal to the inverse of the bulk correlation length exponent. Finally, the implications of these results in the context of self-organizing systems are discussed., 8 pages, 2 figures

We study a microscopically realistic model of a physical gel and use computer simulations to investigate its static and dynamic properties at thermal equilibrium. The phase diagram comprises a sol phase, a coexistence region ending at a critical point, a gelation line, and an equilibrium gel phase unrelated to phase separation. The global structure of the gel is homogeneous, but the stress is supported by a fractal network. Gelation results in a dramatic slowing down of the dynamics, which can be used to locate the transition, which otherwise shows no structural signatures. Moreover, the equilibrium gel dynamics is highly heterogeneous as a result of the presence of particle families with different mobilities. An analysis of gel dynamics in terms of mobile and arrested particles allows us to elucidate several differences between the dynamics of equilibrium gels and that of glass-formers., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, paper presented at the 10th Granada Seminar on Computational and Statistical Physics

This chapter is about the collective effects that are brought about by dipole‐dipole interactions in disordered assemblies of magnetic nanoparticles (NP). We focus on NPs which have single magnetic domains and large uniaxial anisotropics. We first discuss time dependent properties of these systems, such as the zero field cooled (ZFC) and field cooled (FC) magnetic susceptibility and aging, and report some results we obtain making use of the Metropolis Monte Carlo algorithm. For equilibrium behavior, we turn to the parallel tempered Monte Carlo method. A brief introduction to the method is followed by equilibrium results we have recently obtained, mainly, systems of magnetic dipoles with random anisotropy axes have, (a) below some non‐zero temperature Tc, a thermodynamic spin glass phase in three dimensions, but (b) in one layer assemblies, a spin glass phase only at or near zero temperature.This chapter is about the collective effects that are brought about by dipole‐dipole interactions in disordered assemblies of magnetic nanoparticles (NP). We focus on NPs which have single magnetic domains and large uniaxial anisotropics. We first discuss time dependent properties of these systems, such as the zero field cooled (ZFC) and field cooled (FC) magnetic susceptibility and aging, and report some results we obtain making use of the Metropolis Monte Carlo algorithm. For equilibrium behavior, we turn to the parallel tempered Monte Carlo method. A brief introduction to the method is followed by equilibrium results we have recently obtained, mainly, systems of magnetic dipoles with random anisotropy axes have, (a) below some non‐zero temperature Tc, a thermodynamic spin glass phase in three dimensions, but (b) in one layer assemblies, a spin glass phase only at or near zero temperature.

In these notes we present a pedagogical account of the population dynamics methods recently introduced to simulate large deviation functions of dynamical observables in and out of equilibrium. After a brief introduction on large deviation functions and their simulations, we review the method of Giardin\`a \emph{et al.} for discrete time processes and that of Lecomte \emph{et al.} for the continuous time counterpart. Last we explain how these methods can be modified to handle static observables and extract information about intermediate times., Comment: Proceedings of the 10th Granada Seminar on Computational and Statistical Physics

We obtain the exact distribution of the areas enclosed by domain boundaries (‘hulls’) during the coarsening dynamics of a two‐dimensional nonconserved scalar field. This result represents the first analytical demostration of the dynamical scaling hypothesis for this system. The experimental data for the formation of chiral domains in liquid crystals are in very good agreement with the theory.

We studied the phase behavior of a model binary mixture of eye lens crystallin proteins using first‐order thermodynamic perturbation theory. The instability boundary, or spinodal surface, was found to be very sensitive to the strength of the attraction between the two proteins, and also to respond to this interprotein attraction strength in a non‐monotonic fashion. In particular, in the case of either weak or strong attractions, these eye lens solutions become thermodynamicaily unstable. Interestingly, attraction strengths that correspond closely to those of proteins isolated from the living lens fall right within the stable region of the phase diagram. This non‐monotonic stability suggests new molecular mechanisms for eye lens opacification in cataract.

A brief review of recent work on the unique and unusual properties of water is given through results obtained from a simple cell model that reproduces qualitatively the behavior observed in experiments and molecular dynamics simulations. The attention is focused on results that help establish which theoretic scenario better describes the phase diagram of water.

We report a molecular dynamics study of the behavior of a bidimensional system consisting of a large disk (the intruder) immersed in a bed of many small disks. All collisions are instantaneous and inelastic and all possible parameters of the system are kept fixed except for two dimensionless parameters determining the frequency and amplitude of the vibrating base. A systematic exploration of this parameter space leads to determining a transition line separating a zone in which the Brazil nut effect is observed and one in which it is not. It is observed for the BNE to be present it is necessary that the characteristic velocity of the vibrating base is above a certain threshold. This threshold increases as the characteristic acceleration of the base gets larger. The results strongly suggest that, in the region of the parameter space in which the study is made, there is a minimum amplitude and a maximum frequency for the Brazil nut effect to take place. The shape of the transition line is understood in connection with the friction of the system with the lateral walls and with jamming. Friction with the lateral walls produces a net downward force, eventually leading to a convective current that pushes the intruder up. Although the energy injection rate, that helps the development of the convective current, is proportional mainly to the square of the velocity of the base, it is found that the average frictional force decreases when increasing the base acceleration. Therefore, for large base accelerations, higher values of the base velocity are needed to produce a convective current sufficiently strong. But if the system is not excited enough the friction which would produced convective currents are balanced by the reaction forces that result from jamming.