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Abhishek Dhar

Publications and source records attributed to Abhishek Dhar.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Non-equilibrium dynamics of the piston in the Szilard engine

We consider a Szilard engine in one dimension, consisting of a single particle of mass $m$, moving between a piston of mass $M$, and a heat reservoir at temperature $T$. In addition to an external force, the piston experiences repeated elastic collisions with the particle. We find that the motion of a heavy piston ($M \gg m$), can be described effectively by a Langevin equation. Various numerical evidences suggest that the frictional coefficient in the Langevin equation is given by $γ= (1/X)\sqrt{8 πm k_BT}$, where $X$ is the position of the piston measured from the thermal wall. Starting from the exact master equation for the full system and using a perturbation expansion in $ε= \sqrt{m/M}$, we integrate out the degrees of freedom of the particle to obtain the effective Fokker-Planck equation for the piston albeit with a different frictional coefficient. Our microscopic study shows that the piston is never in equilibrium during the expansion step, contrary to the assumption made in the usual Szilard engine analysis --- nevertheless the conclusions of Szilard remain valid.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Fractional diffusion equation description of an open anomalous heat conduction set-up

We provide a stochastic fractional diffusion equation description of energy transport through a finite one-dimensional chain of harmonic oscillators with stochastic momentum exchange and connected to Langevian type heat baths at the boundaries. By establishing an unambiguous finite domain representation of the associated fractional operator, we show that this equation can correctly reproduce equilibrium properties like Green-Kubo formula as well as non-equilibrium properties like the steady state temperature and current. In addition, this equation provides the exact time evolution of the temperature profile. Taking insights from the diffusive system and from numerical simulations, we pose a conjecture that these long-range correlations in the steady state are given by the inverse of the fractional operator. We also point out some interesting properties of the spectrum of the fractional operator. All our analytical results are supplemented with extensive numerical simulations of the microscopic system.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Light-cone spreading of perturbations and the butterfly effect in a classical spin chain

We find that localised perturbations in a chaotic classical many-body system-- the classical Heisenberg We find that the effects of a localised perturbation in a chaotic classical many-body system--the classical Heisenberg chain at infinite temperature--spread ballistically with a finite speed even when the local spin dynamics is diffusive. We study two complementary aspects of this butterfly effect: the rapid growth of the perturbation, and its simultaneous ballistic (light-cone) spread, as characterised by the Lyapunov exponents and the butterfly speed respectively. We connect this to recent studies of the out-of-time-ordered commutators (OTOC), which have been proposed as an indicator of chaos in a quantum system. We provide a straightforward identification of the OTOC with a natural correlator in our system and demonstrate that many of its interesting qualitative features are present in the classical system. Finally, by analysing the scaling forms, we relate the growth, spread and propagation of the perturbation with the growth of one-dimensional interfaces described by the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Return to origin problem for particle on a one-dimensional lattice with quasi-Zeno dynamics

In recent work, the so-called quasi-Zeno dynamics of a system has been investigated in the context of the quantum first passage problem. This dynamics considers the time evolution of a system subjected to a sequence of selective projective measurements made at small but finite intervals of time. This means that one has a sequence of steps, with each step consisting of a unitary transformation followed by a projection. The dynamics is non-unitary and, in recent work, it has been shown that it can be effectively described by two different non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. Here we explore this connection by considering the problem of detecting a free quantum particle moving on a one-dimensional lattice, where the detector is placed at the origin and the particle is initially located at some specified lattice point. We find that results for distribution times for the first detection probability, obtained from the non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, are in excellent agreement with known exact results as well as exact numerics. Interesting finite-size effects are discussed. We also study the first detection problem for the example of a particle moving in a quasi-periodic potential, an example where the unperturbed particle's motion can be ballistic, localized or diffusive.

quant-ph↗

Steady state, relaxation and first-passage properties of a run-and-tumble particle in one-dimension

We investigate the motion of a run-and-tumble particle (RTP) in one dimension. We find the exact probability distribution of the particle with and without diffusion on the infinite line, as well as in a finite interval. In the infinite domain, this probability distribution approaches a Gaussian form in the long-time limit, as in the case of a regular Brownian particle. At intermediate times, this distribution exhibits unexpected multi-modal forms. In a finite domain, the probability distribution reaches a steady state form with peaks at the boundaries, in contrast to a Brownian particle. We also study the relaxation to the steady state analytically. Finally we compute the survival probability of the RTP in a semi-infinite domain. In the finite interval, we compute the exit probability and the associated exit times. We provide numerical verifications of our analytical results.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Anomalous heat equation in a system connected to thermal reservoirs

We study anomalous transport in a one-dimensional system with two conserved quantities in presence of thermal baths. In this system we derive exact expressions of the temperature profile and the two point correlations in steady state as well as in the non-stationary state where the later describes the relaxation to the steady state. In contrast to the Fourier heat equation in the diffusive case, here we show that the evolution of the temperature profile is governed by a non-local anomalous heat equation. We provide numerical verifications of our results.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Extreme statistics and index distribution in the classical $1d$ Coulomb gas

We consider a one-dimensional gas of $N$ charged particles confined by an external harmonic potential and interacting via the one-dimensional Coulomb potential. For this system we show that in equilibrium the charges settle, on an average, uniformly and symmetrically on a finite region centred around the origin. We study the statistics of the position of the rightmost particle $x_{\max}$ and show that the limiting distribution describing its typical fluctuations is different from the Tracy-Widom distribution found in the one-dimensional log-gas. We also compute the large deviation functions which characterise the atypical fluctuations of $x_{\max}$ far away from its mean value. In addition, we study the gap between the two rightmost particles as well as the index $N_+$, i.e., the number of particles on the positive semi-axis. We compute the limiting distributions associated to the typical fluctuations of these observables as well as the corresponding large deviation functions. We provide numerical supports to our analytical predictions. Part of these results were announced in a recent Letter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 060601 (2017).

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Anomalous transport in the Aubry-André-Harper model in isolated and open systems

We study the high temperature transport behavior of the Aubry-André-Harper (AAH) model, both in the isolated thermodynamic limit and in the open system. At the critical point of the AAH model, we find hints of super-diffusive behavior from the scaling of spread of an initially localized wavepacket. On the other hand, when connected to two baths with different chemical potentials at the two ends, we find that the critical point shows clear sub-diffusive scaling of current with system size. We provide an explanation of this by showing that the current scaling with system-size is entirely governed by the behavior of the single particle eigenfunctions at the boundary sites where baths are attached. We also look at the particle density profile in non-equilibrium steady state of the open system when the two baths are at different chemical potentials. We find that the particle density profile has distinctly different behavior in the delocalized, critical and localized phases of the AAH model.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Non-equilibrium phase diagram of a 1D quasiperiodic system with a single-particle mobility edge

We investigate and map out the non-equilibrium phase diagram of a generalization of the well known Aubry-André-Harper (AAH) model. This generalized AAH (GAAH) model is known to have a single-particle mobility edge which also has an additional self-dual property akin to that of the critical point of AAH model. By calculating the imbalance, we get hints of a rich phase diagram. We find a fascinating connection between single particle wavefunctions near the mobility edge of GAAH model and the wavefunctions of the critical AAH model. By placing this model far-from-equilibrium with the aid of two baths, we investigate the open system transport via system size scaling of non-equilibrium steady state (NESS) current. Current is calculated by fully exact non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) formalism. The critical point of the AAH model now generalizes to a 'critical' line separating regions of ballistic and localized transport. Like critical point of AAH model, current scales sub-diffusively with system size on the 'critical' line ($I\sim N^{-2\pm0.1}$). However, remarkably, the scaling exponent on this line is distinctly different from that obtained for the critical AAH model (where $I\sim N^{-1.4\pm0.05}$). All these results can be understood from the above-mentioned connection between states near mobility edge of GAAH model and those of critical AAH model. A very interesting high temperature non-equilibrium phase diagram of the GAAH model emerges from our calculations.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Unusual equilibration of a particle in a potential with a thermal wall

We consider a particle in a one-dimensional box of length $L$ with a Maxwell bath at one end and a reflecting wall at the other end. Using a renewal approach, as well as directly solving the master equation, we show that the system exhibits a slow power law relaxation with a logarithmic correction towards the final equilibrium state. We extend the renewal approach to a class of confining potentials of the form $U(x) \propto x^α$, $x>0$, where we find that the relaxation is $\sim t^{-(α+2)/(α-2)}$ for $α>2$, with a logarithmic correction when $(α+2)/(α-2)$ is an integer. For $α<2$ the relaxation is exponential. Interestingly for $α=2$ (harmonic potential) the localised bath can not equilibrate the particle.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Exact extremal statistics in the classical $1d$ Coulomb gas

We consider a one-dimensional classical Coulomb gas of $N$ like-charges in a harmonic potential -- also known as the one-dimensional one-component plasma (1dOCP). We compute analytically the probability distribution of the position $x_{\max}$ of the rightmost charge in the limit of large $N$. We show that the typical fluctuations of $x_{\max}$ around its mean are described by a non-trivial scaling function, with asymmetric tails. This distribution is different from the Tracy-Widom distribution of $x_{\max}$ for the Dyson's log-gas. We also compute the large deviation functions of $x_{\max}$ explicitly and show that the system exhibits a third-order phase transition, as in the log-gas. Our theoretical predictions are verified numerically.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Thermal Conductivity of Glass-Forming Liquids

Thermal conductivity of a model glass-forming system in the liquid and glass states is studied using extensive numerical simulations. We show that near the glass transition temperture, where the structural relaxation time becomes very long, the measured thermal conductivity decreases with increasing age. Secondly the thermal conductivity of the disordered solid obtained at low temperatures depends on the cooling rate with which it was prepared, with lower cooling rates leading to lower thermal conductivity. Our analysis links this decrease of the thermal conductivity with increased exploration of lower-energy inherent structures of the underlying potential energy landscape. Further we show that the lowering of conductivity for lower-energy inherent structures is related to the high frequency harmonic modes associated with the inherent structure being less extended.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Driven inelastic Maxwell gas in one dimension

A lattice version of the driven inelastic Maxwell gas is studied in one dimension with periodic boundary conditions. Each site $i$ of the lattice is assigned with a scalar `velocity', $v_i$. Nearest neighbors on the lattice interact, with a rate $τ_c^{-1}$, according to an inelastic collision rule. External driving, occurring with a rate $τ_w^{-1}$, sustains a steady state in the system. A set of closed coupled equations for the evolution of the variance and the two-point correlation is found. Steady state values of the variance, as well as spatial correlation functions, are calculated. It is shown exactly that the correlation function decays exponentially with distance, and the correlation length for a large system is determined. Furthermore, the spatio-temporal correlation $C(x,t)=\langle v_i(0) v_{i+x} (t)\rangle$ can also be obtained. We find that there is an interior region $-x^* < x < x^*$, where $C(x,t)$ has a time-dependent form, whereas in the exterior region $|x| > x^*$, the correlation function remains the same as the initial form. $C(x,t)$ exhibits second order discontinuity at the transition points $x=\pm x^*$ and these transition points move away from the $x=0$ with a constant speed.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Non-linear transport in an out-of-equilibrium single-site Bose Hubbard model: scaling, rectification and time dynamics

Recent experiments in hybrid-quantum systems facilitate the potential realization of one of the most fundamental interacting Hamiltonian-Reservoir system, namely, the single-site Bose-Hubbard model coupled to two reservoirs at different temperatures. Using Redfield equations in Born-Markov approximation, we compute non-equilibrium average particle number, energy and currents beyond linear response regime, both time-dynamics and steady state and investigate its dependence on various tunable parameters analytically. We find interesting scaling laws in high temperature regimes that are independent of choice of bath spectral functions. We also demonstrate that the system shows very interesting particle and energy current rectification properties which can be controlled via the relative strength of interaction and temperatures, as well as via the degree of asymmetry in system-bath coupling. Specifically, we find inversion of direction of thermal rectification as a function of the relative strength of the interaction strength and the temperatures. We also show that, in the limit of low-temperature and high interaction strength our results are consistent with the non-equilibrium spin-Boson model. Our results are experimentally relevant not only to hybrid quantum systems, but also in other areas such as molecular junctions.

quant-ph↗

Equilibrium dynamical correlations in the Toda chain and other integrable models

We investigate the form of equilibrium spatio-temporal correlation functions of conserved quantities, and of energy transport in the Toda lattice and in other integrable models. From numerical simulations we find that the correlations satisfy ballistic scaling with a remarkable collapse of data from different times. We examine special limiting choices of parameter values, for which the Toda lattice tends to either the harmonic chain or the equal mass hard-particle gas. In both these limiting cases, one can obtain the correlations exactly and we find excellent agreement with the direct Toda simulation results. We also discuss a transformation to "normal mode" variables, as commonly done in hydrodynamic theory of non-integrable systems, and find that this is useful, to some extent, even for the integrable system.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Step Heat Profile in Localized Chains

We consider two types of strongly disordered one-dimensional Hamiltonian systems coupled to baths (energy or particle reservoirs) at the boundaries: strongly disordered quantum spin chains and disordered classical harmonic oscillators. These systems are believed to exhibit localization, implying in particular that the conductivity decays exponentially in the chain length $L$. We ask however for the profile of the (very slowly) transported quantity in the steady state. We find that this profile is a step-function, jumping in the middle of the chain from the value set by the left bath to the value set by the right bath. The width of the step grows not faster than $\sqrt{L}$. This is confirmed by numerics on a disordered quantum spin chain of 9 spins and on much longer chains of harmonic oscillators. In the case of harmonic oscillators, we also observe a drastic breakdown of local equilibrium at the step, resulting in a chaotic temperature profile.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Out of equilibrium open quantum systems: a comparison of approximate Quantum Master Equation approaches with exact results

We present the Born-Markov approximated Redfield quantum master equation (RQME) description for an open system of non-interacting particles (bosons or fermions) on an arbitrary lattice of $N$ sites in any dimension and weakly connected to multiple reservoirs at different temperatures and chemical potentials. The RQME can be reduced to the Lindblad equation, of various forms, by making further approximations. By studying the $N=2$ case, we show that RQME gives results which agree with exact analytical results for steady state properties and with exact numerics for time-dependent properties, over a wide range of parameters. In comparison, the Lindblad equations have a limited domain of validity in non-equilibrium. We conclude that it is indeed justified to use microscopically derived full RQME to go beyond the limitations of Lindblad equations in out-of-equilibrium systems. We also derive closed form analytical results for out-of-equilibrium time dynamics of two-point correlation functions. These results explicitly show the approach to steady state and thermalization. These results are experimentally relevant for cold atoms, cavity QED and far-from-equilibrium quantum dot experiments.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Eigenstate Gibbs Ensemble in Integrable Quantum Systems

The Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis implies that for a thermodynamically large system in one of its eigenstates, the reduced density matrix describing any finite subsystem is determined solely by a set of {\it relevant} conserved quantities. In a generic system, only the energy plays that role and hence eigenstates appear locally thermal. Integrable systems, on the other hand, possess an extensive number of such conserved quantities and hence the reduced density matrix requires specification of an infinite number of parameters (Generalized Gibbs Ensemble). However, here we show by unbiased statistical sampling of the individual eigenstates with a given finite energy density, that the local description of an overwhelming majority of these states of even such an integrable system is actually Gibbs-like, i.e. requires only the energy density of the eigenstate. Rare eigenstates that cannot be represented by the Gibbs ensemble can also be sampled efficiently by our method and their local properties are then shown to be described by appropriately {\it truncated} Generalized Gibbs Ensembles. We further show that the presence of these rare eigenstates differentiates the model from the generic (non-integrable) case and leads to the system being described by a Generalized Gibbs Ensemble at long time under a unitary dynamics following a sudden quench, even when the initial state is a Gibbs-like eigenstate of the pre-quench Hamiltonian.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗