Continuity and Discontinuity of McKean-Vlasov Phase Transitions via Bifurcation Theory

Abstract

It is well known that the McKean-Vlasov stochastic differential equation with a symmetric double-well potential exhibits a continuous phase transition. In contrast, for an asymmetric double-well potential, the system undergoes a discontinuous phase transition, in which an invariant measure abruptly appears in the shallower well and subsequently splits into two as the temperature decreases. In this work, we systematically investigate the types of phase transitions driven by non-convex confining potentials and cooperative interactions in $\mathbb{R}^n$. Our main results consist of a pitchfork bifurcation theorem characterizing continuous phase transitions and a saddle-node bifurcation theorem governing discontinuous phase transitions. In addition, despite the dimension-dependent nature of phase transitions, we are able to extend Dawson's criterion for phase transition points -- originally formulated for quadratic interactions in $1$-dimensional space -- to $n$-dimensional space. This extension directly relates the critical parameter and bifurcation direction to the eigenvalue and eigenvector of the critical covariance matrix, respectively. Finally, we apply our theoretical results to the aforementioned double-well models, to a class of four-well models in two-dimensional Euclidean space that exhibit multiple phase transitions, and to an attractive Gaussian interaction model.