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.

🔬 condensed matter

Bosonic Working Media in a Frustrated Rhombi Chain: Otto and Stirling Cycles from Flat Bands, Caging, and Flux Control

This paper demonstrates that utilizing geometric frustration and magnetic flux to induce flat-band formation and Aharonov-Bohm caging in a bosonic rhombi-chain lattice significantly enhances the work output and efficiency of quantum Otto cycles by suppressing heat release, while offering broader work extraction for Stirling cycles, thereby establishing spectral engineering as a viable strategy for optimizing bosonic quantum thermal machines.

Francisco J. Peña, Rafael García-Zamora, Gabriele De Chiara, Jorge Flores, Santiago Henríquez, Felipe Barra, Patricio Va (…)2026-04-16

🔬 physics

Free energy differences and coexistence of clathrate structures II and H via lattice-switch Monte Carlo

This paper introduces a novel simulation technique combining isobaric Lattice Switch Monte Carlo and thermodynamic integration to accurately calculate free energy differences and coexistence pressures between clathrate hydrate structures II and H, yielding results that align well with experimental data for argon and methane systems.

Olivia S. Moro, Nigel B. Wilding, Vincent Ballenegger2026-04-16

🔢 mathematics

First Passage Times for Variable-Order Time-Fractional Diffusion

This paper derives the asymptotic first passage time distribution for space-dependent variable-order time-fractional diffusion, demonstrating that the survival probability decays as $C\,t^{-\alpha_*}/(\ln t)^{\nu}$ where $\alpha_*$ is the minimum fractional exponent, a theoretical prediction validated by exact solutions and Monte Carlo simulations that enables the identification of spatially heterogeneous anomalous transport.

Wancheng Li, Daniel S. Han2026-04-16

🔬 condensed matter

A Unified Glassy Rheology for Granular Matter

By combining high-speed X-ray tomography with a non-equilibrium statistical framework that draws an analogy to hard-sphere liquids, this paper establishes a unified, microscopically-based constitutive law for dense granular flows that resolves the limitations of the traditional $\mu(I)$ rheology across quasi-static to inertial regimes.

Zhikun Zeng, Jiazhao Xu, Hanyu Li, Shiang Zhang, Houfei Yuan, Chijin Zhou, Xueliang Dai, Haiyang Lu, Xin Wang, Jun Zhao (…)2026-04-16

🔬 condensed matter

Frequency-Dependent Conductivity of Concentrated Electrolytes: A Stochastic Density Functional Theory

This paper employs stochastic density functional theory to extend the classical Debye-Falkenhagen prediction of frequency-dependent conductivity from dilute to concentrated electrolytes by incorporating hard-core repulsion effects, while also addressing the challenges in experimentally observing this phenomenon.

Haggai Bonneau, Yael Avni, David Andelman, Henri Orland2026-04-15

🔬 condensed matter

Boltzmann Sampling by Diabatic Quantum Annealing

This paper proposes diabatic quantum annealing as a controllable, purely unitary alternative to traditional quantum annealing for Boltzmann sampling, demonstrating that the effective temperature can be precisely tuned via the annealing rate to achieve rapid and accurate sampling in high-temperature regimes.

Ju-Yeon Gyhm, Gilhan Kim, Hyukjoon Kwon, Yongjoo Baek2026-04-15

⚛️ high-energy theory

On the temperature of an active nematic

This paper employs a hydrodynamic framework to demonstrate that while linearized temperature correlations in a homogeneous active nematic remain unaffected by activity, spontaneous flow transitions in confined systems generate distinctive inhomogeneous temperature profiles that serve as a thermal signature of activity.

Jay Armas, Akash Jain, Ruben Lier2026-04-15

⚛️ quantum physics

Effective delocalization in the one-dimensional Anderson model with stealthy disorder

This paper demonstrates that introducing "stealthy" disorder with a vanishing power spectrum in a continuous band of wave numbers to the one-dimensional Anderson model induces effective delocalization, where the localization length scales with an arbitrarily high inverse power of the disorder strength, allowing it to exceed system sizes at fixed disorder levels.

Carlo Vanoni, Jonas Karcher, Mikael C. Rechtsman, Boris L. Altshuler, Paul J. Steinhardt, Salvatore Torquato2026-04-15

📊 statistics

Graphical model for factorization and completion of relatively high rank tensors by sparse sampling

This paper proposes a graphical model and develops both message-passing algorithms and a replica theory based on cumulant expansion to analyze and perform tensor factorization and completion of relatively high-rank tensors under sparse, random graph-based sampling in the high-dimensional dense limit.

Angelo Giorgio Cavaliere, Riki Nagasawa, Shuta Yokoi, Tomoyuki Obuchi, Hajime Yoshino2026-04-15

🔬 condensed matter

Koopman Mode Decomposition of Thermodynamic Dissipation in Nonlinear Langevin Dynamics

This paper employs Koopman mode decomposition to establish a general framework that linearizes nonlinear Langevin dynamics, thereby decomposing thermodynamic dissipation into interpretable, frequency-dependent contributions from individual oscillatory modes and demonstrating how these modes govern energy loss in phenomena like coherent resonance within the noisy FitzHugh-Nagumo model.

Daiki Sekizawa, Sosuke Ito, Masafumi Oizumi2026-04-15

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