Numerical study of continuous and discontinuous dynamical phase transitions for boundary-driven systems

Phys Rev E. 2017 Mar;95(3-1):032137. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.95.032137. Epub 2017 Mar 24.

Abstract

The existence and search for thermodynamic phase transitions is of unfading interest. In this paper, we present numerical evidence of dynamical phase transitions occurring in boundary-driven systems with a constrained integrated current. It is shown that certain models exhibit a discontinuous transition between two different density profiles and a continuous transition between a time-independent and a time-dependent profile. We also verified that the Kipnis-Marchioro-Presutti model exhibits no phase transitions in a range much larger than previously explored.