We calculate the velocity and thickness of a bubble wall at the electroweak phase transition in the Minimal Standard Model. We model the wall with semiclassical equations of motion and show that friction arises from the deviation of massive particle populations from thermal equilibrium. We treat these with Boltzmann equations in a fluid approximation in the background of the wall. Our analysis ...

We compute the equilibrium crystal structure and phase stability of iron at the α(bcc)-γ(fcc) phase transition as a function of temperature, by employing a combination of ab initio methods for calculating electronic band structures and dynamical mean-field theory. The magnetic correlation energy is found to be an essential driving force behind the α-γ structural phase transition in paramagnetic...

The Hamiltonian mean-field model has been investigated, since its introduction about a decade ago, to study the equilibrium and dynamical properties of long-range interacting systems. Here we study the long-time behavior of long-lived, out-of-equilibrium, quasistationary dynamical states, whose lifetime diverges in the thermodynamic limit. The nature of these states has been the object of a liv...

We study a paradigmatic system with long-range interactions: the Hamiltonian mean-field (HMF) model. It is shown that in the thermodynamic limit this model does not relax to the usual equilibrium Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. Instead, the final stationary state has a peculiar core-halo structure. In the thermodynamic limit, HMF is neither ergodic nor mixing. Nevertheless, we find that using d...

A derivation of chemical equilibrium equations for a spherical thin film of solution around a soluble solid nanoparticle is presented. The equations obtained generalize the Gibbs-Kelvin-Kohler and Ostwald-Freundlich equations for a soluble particle immersed in the bulk phase. The generalized equations describe the dependence of the chemical potentials of a condensate and dissolved nanoparticle ...

The spin crossover compound [FeIIH2L2-Me][PF6]2 presents a two-step phase transition. In the intermediate phase, a spin state concentration wave (SSCW) appears resulting from a symmetry breaking (cell doubling) associated with a long-range order of alternating high and low spin molecular states. By combining time-resolved optical and X-ray diffraction measurements on a single crystal, we study ...

There exist some boundary-driven open systems with diffusive dynamics whose particle current fluctuations exhibit universal features that belong to the Edwards-Wilkinson universality class. We achieve this result by establishing a mapping, for the system fluctuations, to an equivalent open yet equilibrium-diffusive system. We discuss the possibility of observing dynamic phase transitions using ...

We consider magnetic friction between two systems of q-state Potts spins which are moving along their boundaries with a relative constant velocity ν. Due to the interaction between the surface spins there is a permanent energy flow and the system is in a steady state, which is far from equilibrium. The problem is treated analytically in the limit ν=∞ (in one dimension, as well as in two dimensi...

Exciting recent developments suggest that phase transitions represent an important and ubiquitous mechanism underlying intracellular organization. We describe key experimental findings in this area of study, as well as the application of classical theoretical approaches for quantitatively understanding these data. We also discuss the way in which equilibrium thermodynamic driving forces may int...

Symmetry-breaking phase transitions are an example of non-equilibrium processes that require real-time treatment, a major challenge in strongly coupled systems without long-lived quasiparticles. Holographic duality provides such an approach by mapping strongly coupled field theories in D dimensions into weakly coupled quantum gravity in D+1 anti-de Sitter spacetime. Here we use holographic dual...