Velocity Multistability vs. Ergodicity Breaking in a Biased Periodic Potential

Multistability, i.e., the coexistence of several attractors for a given set of system parameters, is one of the most important phenomena occurring in dynamical systems. We consider it in the velocity dynamics of a Brownian particle, driven by thermal fluctuations and moving in a biased periodic potential. In doing so, we focus on the impact of ergodicity—A concept which lies at the core of statistical mechanics. The latter implies that a single trajectory of the system is representative for the whole ensemble and, as a consequence, the initial conditions of the dynamics are fully forgotten. The ergodicity of the deterministic counterpart is strongly broken, and we discuss how the velocity multistability depends on the starting position and velocity of the particle. While for non-zero temperatures the ergodicity is, in principle, restored, in the low temperature regime the velocity dynamics is still affected by initial conditions due to weak ergodicity breaking. For moderate and high temperatures, the multistability is robust with respect to the choice of the starting position and velocity of the particle.

Time-averaging and emerging nonergodicity upon resetting of fractional Brownian motion and heterogeneous diffusion processes

How different are the results of constant-rate resetting of anomalous-diffusion processes in terms of their ensemble-averaged versus time-averaged mean-squared displacements (MSDs versus TAMSDs) and how does the process of stochastic resetting impact nonergodicity? These are the main questions addressed in this study. Specifically, we examine, both analytically and by stochastic simulations, the implications of resetting on the MSD-and TAMSD-based spreading dynamics of fractional Brownian motion (FBM) with a long-time memory, of heterogeneous diffusion processes (HDPs) with a power-law-like space-dependent diffusivity D(x) = D0 |x| γ, and of their “combined” process of HDP-FBM. We find, i.a., that the resetting dynamics of originally ergodic FBM for superdiffusive choices of the Hurst exponent develops distinct disparities in the scaling behavior and magnitudes of the MSDs and mean TAMSDs, indicating so-called weak ergodicity breaking (WEB). For subdiffusive HDPs we also quantify the nonequivalence of the MSD and TAMSD, and additionally observe a new trimodal form of the probability density function (PDF) of particle’ displacements. For all three reset processes (FBM, HDPs, and HDP-FBM) we compute analytically and verify by stochastic computer simulations the short-time (normal and anomalous) MSD and TAMSD asymptotes (making conclusions about WEB) as well as the long-time MSD and TAMSD plateaus, reminiscent of those for “confined” processes. We show that certain characteristics of the reset processes studied are functionally similar, despite the very different stochastic nature of their nonreset variants. Importantly, we discover nonmonotonicity of the ergodicity breaking parameter EB as a function of the resetting rate r. For all the reset processes studied, we unveil a pronounced resetting-induced nonergodicity with a maximum of EB at intermediate r and EB ∼ (1/r)-decay at large r values. Together with the emerging MSD-versus-TAMSD disparity, this pronounced r-dependence of the EB parameter can be an experimentally testable prediction. We conclude via discussing some implications of our results to experimental systems featuring resetting dynamics.

Weak-ergodicity-breaking via lattice supersymmetry

We study the spectral properties of D-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric lattice models. We find systematic departures from the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) in the form of a degenerate set of ETH-violating supersymmetric (SUSY) doublets, also referred to as many-body scars, that we construct analytically. These states are stable against arbitrary SUSY-preserving perturbations, including inhomogeneous couplings. For the specific case of two-leg ladders, we provide extensive numerical evidence that shows how those states are the only ones violating the ETH, and discuss their robustness to SUSY-violating perturbations. Our work suggests a generic mechanism to stabilize quantum many-body scars in lattice models in arbitrary dimensions.

Ergodic Tendencies in Sub-Systems Coupled to Finite Reservoirs—Classical and Quantal

Whereas ergodic theories relate to limiting cases of infinite thermal reservoirs and infinitely long times, some ergodicity tendencies may appear also for finite reservoirs and time durations. These tendencies are here explored and found to exist, but only for extremely long times and very soft ergodic criteria. “Weak ergodicity breaking” is obviated by a judicious time-weighting, as found in a previous work [Found. Phys. (2015) 45: 673–690]. The treatment is based on an N-oscillator (classical) and an N-spin (quantal) model. The showing of ergodicity is facilitated by pictorial presentations.

Strong ergodicity breaking in aging of mean-field spin glasses

Out-of-equilibrium relaxation processes show aging if they become slower as time passes. Aging processes are ubiquitous and play a fundamental role in the physics of glasses and spin glasses and in other applications (e.g., in algorithms minimizing complex cost/loss functions). The theory of aging in the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of mean-field spin glass models has achieved a fundamental role, thanks to the asymptotic analytic solution found by Cugliandolo and Kurchan. However, this solution is based on assumptions (e.g., the weak ergodicity breaking hypothesis) which have never been put under a strong test until now. In the present work, we present the results of an extraordinary large set of numerical simulations of the prototypical mean-field spin glass models, namely the Sherrington–Kirkpatrick and the Viana–Bray models. Thanks to a very intensive use of graphics processing units (GPUs), we have been able to run the latter model for more than264spin updates and thus safely extrapolate the numerical data both in the thermodynamical limit and in the large times limit. The measurements of the two-times correlation functions in isothermal aging after a quench from a random initial configuration to a temperatureT<Tcprovides clear evidence that, at large times, such correlations do not decay to zero as expected by assuming weak ergodicity breaking. We conclude that strong ergodicity breaking takes place in mean-field spin glasses aging dynamics which, asymptotically, takes place in a confined configurational space. Theoretical models for the aging dynamics need to be revised accordingly.