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Shubham Thwal

Publications and source records attributed to Shubham Thwal.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Persistence Properties of a Phase-ordering System with Competing Dynamics

We investigate the persistence properties during phase ordering in the two-dimensional ($d=2$) Ising model evolving under competing nonconserved spin-flip and conserved spin-exchange dynamics by means of Monte Carlo simulations at zero temperature. We examine three distinct persistence probabilities: (i) the total persistence probability, defined as the probability that a lattice site has never experienced a change in the sign of the spin residing there; (ii) the spin-flip persistence probability, which exclusively measures the fraction of sites that have never undergone a spin-flip event; and (iii) the composite persistence probability, defined as the fraction of sites that have experienced neither a spin-flip nor a spin-exchange event. In the asymptotic regime, both the total and spin-flip persistence probabilities exhibit identical power-law decay, irrespective of the relative occurrence probability of the spin-flip move $p_r$. The corresponding persistence exponent $\theta_i \approx 0.225$, is found to be consistent with the value reported for systems evolving purely under nonconserved dynamics. We further demonstrate that both persistence measures satisfy the scaling relation $d-d_f^i=\theta_i/\alpha_i$, where $d_f^i$ is the fractal dimension of the corresponding persistence lattice and $\alpha_i\approx 1/2$ characterizes the asymptotic power-law growth of spatially correlated regions of non-persistent spins. In contrast, although the composite persistence probability also exhibits asymptotic power-law decay, both the corresponding persistence exponent $\theta_{\rm c}$ and the fractal dimension $d_f^{\rm c}$ of the persistence lattice show strong dependence on $p_r$. Combined with the presence of a universal growth exponent $\alpha_{\rm c}\approx 1/2$, this leads to the breakdown of the scaling relation among the characteristic exponents for the composite persistence.

cond-mat.stat-mech

Effect of Cylindrical Confinement on the Collapse Dynamics of a Polymer

Structure and dynamics of a polymer under confinement gets significantly altered due to the imposed geometric restrictions. Using molecular dynamics simulations, here, we explore the effect of cylindrical confinement on the kinetics of collapse of a homopolymer, when the solvent condition is abruptly changed from good to poor. The observed phenomenology for a range of the cylinder radius $R$, reveals two distinct stages of the collapse. The first stage is highlighted by the formation and growth of local connected clusters resembling a pearl necklace, eventually ending with a single sausage-like cluster. In the second stage, the sausage-like intermediate approaches a spherical globule via surface-energy minimization. These two stages are disentangled using a shape parameter of the individual pearls or clusters, allowing us to also extract the respective relaxation times, and thereby their scaling behaviors with respect to the length of the polymer. We find that the pearl-necklace relaxation time $\tau_p$ is independent of $R$. On the other hand, the sausage-relaxation time $\tau_s$ varies inversely up to a certain $R$, beyond which it also saturates. From the Arrhenius plots of the temperature dependence of $\tau_p$ and $\tau_s$, we extract the activation energies $E_{\rm a}$ of the two stages. While the estimated $E_{\rm a}$ for the pearl-necklace stage is independent of $R$, for the sausage relaxation it is significantly higher in the strongly confined case than in the weakly one. Surprisingly, at a fixed temperature, the growth of the average cluster size obeys a universal power law irrespective of $R$. However, for a fixed $R$, the behavior is rather non-universal with respect to temperature. We propose viable scenarios for experimental realization of polymer collapse inside cylindrical nanochannels.

cond-mat.soft

Interplay of phase segregation and chemical reaction: Crossover and effect on growth laws

By combining the nonconserved spin-flip dynamics driving ferromagnetic ordering with the conserved Kawasaki-exchange dynamics driving phase segregation, we perform Monte Carlo simulations of the nearest neighbor Ising model. Such a set up mimics a system consisting of a binary mixture of \emph{isomers} which is simultaneously undergoing a segregation and an \emph{interconversion} reaction among themselves . Here, we study such a system following a quench from the high-temperature homogeneous phase to a temperature below the demixing transition. We monitor the growth of domains of both the \emph{winner}, the \emph{isomer} which survives as the majority and the \emph{loser}, the \emph{isomer} that perishes. Our results show a strong interplay of the two dynamics at early times leading to a growth of the average domain size of both the \emph{winner} and \emph{loser} as $\sim t^{1/7}$, slower than a purely phase-segregating system. At later times, eventually the dynamics becomes reaction dominated, and the \emph{winner} exhibits a $\sim t^{1/2}$ growth, expected for a system with purely nonconserved dynamics. On the other hand, the \emph{loser} at first show a faster growth, albeit, slower than the \emph{winner}, and then starts to decay before it almost vanishes. Further, we estimate the time $τ_s$ marking the crossover from the early-time slow growth to the late-time reaction dominated faster growth. As a function of the reaction probability $p_r$, we observe a power-law scaling $τ_s \sim p_r^{-x}$, where $x\approx 1.05$, irrespective of temperature. For a fixed value of $p_r$ too, $τ_s$ appears to be independent of temperature.

cond-mat.stat-mech

Segregation disrupts the Arrhenius behavior of an isomerization reaction

Co-existence of phase segregation and \emph{interconversion} or \emph{isomerization} reaction among molecular species leads to fascinating structure formation in biological and chemical world. Using Monte Carlo simulations of the prototype Ising model, we explore the chemical kinetics of such a system consisting of a binary mixture of \emph{isomers}. Our results reveal that even though the two concerned processes are individually Arrhenius in nature, the Arrhenius behavior of the \emph{isomerization} reaction gets significantly disrupted due to an interplay of the nonconserved dynamics of the reaction and the conserved diffusive dynamics of phase segregation. The approach used here can be potentially adapted to understand reaction kinetics of more complex reactions.

cond-mat.stat-mech