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.

🤖 machine learning

The Loss Floor of Denoising Score Matching: Fisher Geometry from Schrödinger Bridges

This paper establishes that the irreducible training loss floor in denoising score matching is exactly the integrated trace of the Fisher–Rao metric of the conditional endpoint family, derived via a Schrödinger bridge variational principle, thereby revealing that information geometry is an intrinsic component of diffusion model training and explaining why raw loss values may not consistently rank models across different noise schedules.

Avinash Raju, Kai Zhang2026-08-26

🔬 condensed matter

Collective Order Decouples Boundary Selection from Macroscopic Chirality in Confined Active Matter

This study demonstrates that in confined active fluids with nematic bulk alignment, the direction of macroscopic circulation is governed by collective order rather than wall symmetry, effectively decoupling the local boundary-induced orientation from the global flow direction.

Néstor Sepúlveda2026-08-26

💰 quantitative finance

Bulk Phase Transition and Edge Behavior in Temporally Correlated Random Matrices

This paper investigates the spectral properties of long-range correlated Wigner-type matrices, demonstrating that exponentially decaying correlations preserve Tracy-Widom edge universality while power-law correlations induce a fourth-moment transition at $\gamma=1/2$ and a breakdown of flatness at $\gamma=1$ , yet numerically exhibit a smooth edge behavior without discontinuity.

Masato Hisakado, Takuya Kaneko2026-08-26

🔬 condensed matter

Geometric Thermodynamics of Scallop Motion with Two Control Parameters

This paper demonstrates that thermal fluctuations in a two-parameter driven potential landscape enable net propulsion for a scallop-like swimmer, bypassing Purcell's scallop theorem through a unified geometric framework where directed motion arises from Berry-Sinitsyn-Nemenman curvature and dissipation is governed by a Riemannian thermodynamic metric.

Hisao Hayakawa2026-08-26

🔬 condensed matter

A Minimal Thermodynamically Consistent Chemical Oscillator

This paper introduces a minimal, thermodynamically consistent chemical oscillator composed of three internal species that exhibits autonomous oscillations via a supercritical Hopf bifurcation, utilizing normal-form reduction to analytically characterize the system's dynamics and the discontinuous thermodynamic response of key quantities at the onset of oscillations.

Benedikt Remlein, Luca Monari, Beatrice Bartolomei, Giulio Ragazzon, Massimiliano Esposito, Emanuele Penocchio2026-08-26

⚛️ quantum physics

Critical bifurcation and deconfined quantum criticality in an interacting cluster Ising chain

This paper investigates an interacting cluster Ising chain using tensor-network methods and field theory to reveal how a nearest-neighbor interaction breaks $O(3)$ symmetry, inducing a critical bifurcation that leads to a deconfined quantum critical line with emergent $O(2)$ symmetry and a floating phase, alongside a translation-symmetry-breaking antiferromagnetic phase at strong coupling.

Sourabh, Bachana Beradze, Mikheil Tsitsishvili, Alexander Nersesyan, Titas Chanda2026-08-26

🔬 condensed matter

Exact autoregressive sampling of planar Ising spin glasses via the Kac--Ward theory

This paper presents an exact autoregressive sampling algorithm for planar Ising spin glasses that utilizes Kac--Ward theory and a planarity-preserving auxiliary spin construction to map conditional partition functions to zero-field models, thereby generating strictly independent samples with exact likelihoods at $\mathcal{O}(N^{5/2})$ cost to serve as a rigorous benchmark for neural samplers.

Jing Liu, Tao Chen, Tianrui Che, Lei Wang, Youjin Deng, Pan Zhang2026-08-26

🔬 condensed matter

Dynamic quantum phase transitions in the two-leg Creutz ladder with long-range hopping

This paper investigates dynamic quantum phase transitions in a two-leg Creutz ladder with long-range hopping by deriving exact solutions for the dynamical free energy and demonstrating that the density of critical times increases with the hopping range and decreases with the power-law decay exponent.

J. A. da Silva, J. C. Xavier2026-08-26

🔬 mesoscale physics

Beyond capillary condensation: Shear-induced bridging transitions in patterned slits

This paper investigates the equilibrium phase behavior of a fluid confined between two sheared patterned walls, revealing how the competition between capillary condensation and interface delocalization induces a rich phase diagram of shear-induced bridging transitions characterized by distinct pinning properties and large correlation lengths.

Alexandr Malijevský, Andrew O. Parry, Jiří Janek2026-08-26

🔬 condensed matter

A universality class for RNA-like polymers and double polymers

This paper establishes a field theory derived from an $O(n)$ symmetric spin model to demonstrate that RNA-like polymers with constant binding energy belong to a universality class featuring a stable renormalization group fixed point in eight dimensions, where double polymers decouple into branched polymers while single-strand polymers exhibit distinct critical behavior.

Richard Dengler2026-08-25

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