cond-mat.stat-mech papers

Statistical mechanics explores how the chaotic motion of countless tiny particles gives rise to the predictable laws governing heat, pressure, and phase transitions. This field bridges the gap between the microscopic world of atoms and the macroscopic reality we experience daily, offering deep insights into why materials behave the way they do.

On Gist.Science, we process every new preprint in this category as it appears on arXiv to make these complex findings accessible to everyone. For each paper, we provide both a plain-language explanation for the curious reader and a detailed technical summary for specialists, ensuring that groundbreaking research is never lost behind a wall of jargon.

Below are the latest papers in statistical mechanics, freshly curated and summarized to help you understand the cutting edge of this fascinating discipline.

🔢 mathematics

Ground State Excitations and Energy Fluctuations in Short-Range Spin Glasses

This paper demonstrates that in the Edwards-Anderson Ising spin glass, the non-existence of space-filling critical droplets implies that incongruent ground states would exhibit volume-scaling energy variance, a result which proves the uniqueness of the metastate in two dimensions and establishes that excitations with positive-density interfaces have energy differences diverging as the square root of the volume.

C. M. Newman, D. L. Stein2026-06-02

⚛️ high-energy theory

Variational Method in Quantum Field Theory

This paper presents a variational framework that leverages exact integrable structures from sinh-Gordon theory to accurately estimate physical quantities, such as ground-state energy and mass, in the non-integrable two-dimensional $\varphi^4$ Landau-Ginzburg model, particularly within the weak-coupling regime.

Arthur Hutsalyuk, Márton Lájer, Giuseppe Mussardo, Andrea Stampiggi2026-06-02

🔬 condensed matter

Hyperuniformity in active fluids reshapes nucleation and capillary-wave dynamics

This study reveals that in nonequilibrium hyperuniform active fluids, nucleation is governed by a quasipotential rather than reversible work, causing the nucleation probability to lose its standard surface-volume separation and exhibit a breakdown of detailed balance due to nonreciprocal capillary-wave dynamics.

Raphaël Maire2026-06-02

🌀 nonlinear sciences

Decomposition of Anomalous Diffusion in two-state random walks

This paper demonstrates that a Two-State Random Walk, which switches between a continuous-time random walk rest state and a Lévy walk motion state, exhibits a generic coexistence of Joseph, Noah, and Moses effects, revealing that stochastic coupling with a CTRW phase can fundamentally induce heavy-tailed increments and aging in systems where Lévy walks alone possess only the Joseph effect.

Abhijit Bera, Kevin. E. Bassler2026-06-02

⚛️ general relativity

Relativistic transformation of temperature revisited

This paper resolves the long-standing controversy over relativistic temperature transformations by demonstrating that effective temperature increases with velocity in a manner dependent on the system's equation of state, thereby supporting the Ott-Eddington interpretation and establishing temperature as an observer-dependent quantity linked to the inverse-temperature four-vector.

Soroor Pouryazdan, Babak Vakili2026-06-02

🔬 condensed matter

High Resolution Study of the 2D ANNNI Model Using a Two-replica Cluster Algorithm and Population Annealing

This paper demonstrates that combining a two-replica cluster algorithm with population annealing effectively equilibrates the 2D ANNNI model, enabling the full resolution of specific heat peaks in the incommensurate floating phase by efficiently moving defect lines between replicas.

Shane Keiser, Jon Machta2026-06-02

🔬 condensed matter

The Longest Increasing Subsequence Problem revisited

This paper reveals that the Longest Increasing Subsequence problem, despite being solvable in polynomial time, exhibits glassy dynamics and thermodynamic sparsity at low temperatures, where local search algorithms become trapped in metastable states due to a lack of accessible configurations rather than energetic barriers.

Silvio Franz, Roberto Mulet2026-06-02✓ Author reviewed ⓘ

🔬 condensed matter

Can the Brownian diffusion coefficient be reconstructed from Lyapunov exponents?

This paper demonstrates that the quasiperiodic Brownian diffusion coefficient of an ac-driven particle in a periodic potential at non-zero temperatures can be accurately reconstructed from the maximal Lyapunov exponent of the corresponding zero-temperature deterministic system using a proposed approximate formula.

I. G. Marchenko, I. I. Marchenko, D. Ivashchenko, J. Łuczka, J. Spiechowicz2026-06-02

🔬 condensed matter

Linear optimal protocol for physical constraints in weakly driven processes

This paper demonstrates that minimizing irreversible work in weakly driven systems under physical constraints on the protocol derivative yields a global optimal solution of constant driving speed and a linear protocol, a result derived from a shifted eigenvalue equation and confirmed by numerical genetic programming.

Pierre Nazé2026-06-02✓ Author reviewed ⓘ

⚛️ nuclear theory

Cumulant dynamics in finite-memory diffusion

This paper extends the standard Fickian diffusion model to Maxwell–Cattaneo diffusion to account for finite current-relaxation time, deriving closed evolution equations that reveal how this memory effect suppresses, shifts, and reshapes the non-monotonic behavior of conserved charge cumulants in the quark-gluon plasma.

Navid Abbasi, Xin An, Shanjin Wu2026-06-02

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