🔬 Category

cond-mat.stat-mech

2358 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.

🌀 nonlinear sciences

The structure of networks that evolve under a combination of growth, via node addition and random attachment, and contraction, via random node deletion

This paper presents analytical results for the time-dependent and asymptotic degree distributions of networks evolving under a balance of random node addition and deletion, revealing that while growing networks converge to a steady-state distribution with a Poisson-like tail, contracting networks exhibit distinct convergence behaviors depending on the specific rate of contraction relative to the network's eventual disappearance.

Barak Budnick, Ofer Biham, Eytan Katzav2026-08-21
🔬 condensed matter

Hydrodynamic equations and near critical large deviations of active lattice gases

Using a path integral approach, this paper derives hydrodynamic equations and large deviation functions for three active lattice gases, demonstrating that near their critical points, these non-equilibrium systems universally reduce to equilibrium Model B dynamics with a ϕ4\phi^4 free energy, while exhibiting distinct active corrections as they move away from criticality.

Luke Neville2026-08-21
🌀 nonlinear sciences

The effect of preferential node deletion on the structure of networks that evolve via preferential attachment

This paper presents analytical results for a preferential-attachment-preferential-deletion (PAPD) network model, demonstrating that the structural stability and degree distribution of the evolving network depend critically on the balance between growth and contraction rates, with a specific critical threshold determining whether the network remains finite or grows indefinitely.

Barak Budnick, Ofer Biham, Eytan Katzav2026-08-21
🔬 condensed matter

Geometric decomposition of information flow for overdamped Langevin systems and optimal transport in subsystems

This paper extends the geometric decomposition of information flow from Markov jump systems to overdamped Langevin systems, linking excess and housekeeping contributions to optimal transport theory and Koopman mode decomposition to derive generalized thermodynamic laws, uncertainty relations, and speed limits.

Sosuke Ito, Yoh Maekawa, Ryuna Nagayama, Andreas Dechant, Kohei Yoshimura2026-08-21
🔬 condensed matter

Exact expressions of correlation functions between two spins in the boundary row of the two-dimensional rectangular Ising model with periodic-free boundary conditions and finite size

This paper derives and analyzes exact expressions for spin-spin correlation functions in the boundary row of a finite two-dimensional rectangular Ising model with periodic-free boundary conditions, demonstrating how these results converge to known thermodynamic limit forms while highlighting the dependence of long-range order on the order of limits and finite-size effects.

Mei Tao2026-08-21✓ Author reviewed ⓘ
⚛️ high-energy theory

Holographic Local Operator Quenches with Conserved Momentum and Spin

This paper establishes a precise holographic dictionary between local operator quenches in 2D CFTs and point particles carrying conserved momentum or spin in asymptotically AdS3_3 spacetimes, demonstrating exact agreement between boundary and bulk calculations of energy density and entanglement entropy while introducing new quantum quench protocols.

Pawel Caputa, Pedro Castellini Grand, Justin R. David, Rahul Metya2026-08-21
🔬 condensed matter

State convertibility and fluctuation theorems from a dynamical reference: majorization meets martingales

This paper unifies and extends state convertibility criteria to arbitrary time-dependent reference distributions by introducing g(t)g(t)-majorization and a martingale-based dual picture, which further enables the derivation of an exact fluctuation theorem that serves as a model-independent diagnostic for certifying reference evolution errors via χ2\chi^2-divergence bounds.

Davide Cugini, Giacomo Guarnieri2026-08-21
🔬 condensed matter

Exact Fluctuation-Response Relations for Underdamped Langevin Dynamics

This paper establishes an exact finite-time fluctuation-response equality for underdamped Langevin dynamics that reveals response, rather than mean current, as the fundamental link between fluctuations and dissipation, enabling a variational characterization of entropy production and overcoming the limitations of conventional thermodynamic uncertainty relations.

Tan Van Vu, Van Tuan Vo, Ruicheng Bao, Keiji Saito2026-08-21