Pico-canonical ensembles: a theoretical description of metastable states

Deepak Dhar

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2002, vol. 315, issue 1, 5-13

Abstract: We define restricted ensembles, called pico-canonical ensembles, for a statistical-mechanical description of the metastable and glassy phases. In this approach, time evolution is Markovian, with temperature dependent rates. Below a particular glass temperature, the system is strongly non-ergodic, and the phase space breaks up into a large number of mutually disconnected sectors. Averages are calculated over states within one such sector, and then averaged over sectors. As a soluble example, we calculate these explicitly for a one-dimensional lattice gas with nearest-neighbor couplings.

Keywords: Glasses; Metastable states; Ergodicity breaking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:315:y:2002:i:1:p:5-13

DOI: 10.1016/S0378-4371(02)01221-9

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