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.

A microcanonical approach to criticality in the mean-field $\phi^4$ model: evidence of intrinsic microcanonical structure before the thermodynamic limit

This paper proposes that criticality is an intrinsic structural property of finite systems, demonstrating through the mean-field $\phi^4$ model that microcanonical inflection-point analysis (MIPA) can identify a unique finite-size critical trajectory that converges to the thermodynamic limit, thereby reframing finite-size criticality as a measurable and predictive phenomenon rather than merely a rounded remnant of the infinite-size limit.

Loris Di Cairano, Roberto Franzosi2026-05-15🔬 cond-mat

Matrix-Product Belief Propagation for continuous-state-space variables

This paper generalizes the Matrix-Product Belief Propagation method to continuous-state-space variables by employing a tunable Hilbert function basis expansion, enabling efficient and accurate semi-analytical computation of observables in large sparse networks with mixed continuous/discrete degrees of freedom, as demonstrated on Kinetic Ising dynamics.

Federico Florio, Alfredo Braunstein2026-05-15🔬 cond-mat

Spontaneous symmetry breaking and Goldstone modes for deep information propagation

This paper demonstrates that deep neural networks with continuous symmetry equivariance support Goldstone-like modes that enable coherent, stable information propagation across depth and time, thereby improving trainability and long-term memory without relying on standard architectural stabilizers like residual connections or normalization.

Nabil Iqbal, T. Anderson Keller, Yue Song, Takeru Miyato, Max Welling2026-05-15🔬 cond-mat

Absorbing phase transitions with memory in critical scaling

This paper demonstrates that driven systems with absorbing states can exhibit history-dependent critical scaling and nonunique quasi-stationary behavior when their configuration space fractures into disconnected macroscopic classes, thereby challenging the conventional assumption that critical exponents are independent of initial conditions.

Kartik Chhajed, P. K. Mohanty2026-05-14🔬 cond-mat

Characterizing the Many Body Localization Crossover as a Metal-Insulator Transition: Localization length from Polarization and Quantum Metric

This paper characterizes the Many-Body Localization crossover as a metal-insulator transition by utilizing the many-body quantum metric and polarization-based localization parameters to extract a consistent localization length that describes the real-space spread of wave functions in disordered insulating phases.

W. N. Faugno, Tomoki Ozawa2026-05-14⚛️ quant-ph

Spectral Decomposition of Liquid Viscosity into Instantaneous Normal Modes

This paper presents a theoretical framework that decomposes liquid viscosity into contributions from individual instantaneous normal modes, revealing that unstable localized modes dominate viscous dynamics above the mode-coupling temperature while stable modes take over below it, thereby establishing a quantitative link between macroscopic viscosity and microscopic atomic excitations.

Long-Zhou Huang, Bingyu Cui, Min-Qiang Jiang, Matteo Baggioli, Yun-Jiang Wang2026-05-14🔬 cond-mat

Emergence of Periodic Potential for Point Defects in a 2D Hexagonal Colloidal Lattice

By analyzing experimental trajectories of point defects in a 2D hexagonal colloidal crystal beyond the constant diffusion approximation, researchers reconstructed an effective periodic stochastic potential landscape that successfully explains the observed complex defect dynamics and aligns with previous energy estimates.

Huang Xicheng, Liu Zefei, Chen Yong-Cong, Yang Guohong, Ao Ping2026-05-14🔬 cond-mat

Competing Effect of Biquadratic and Heisenberg Coupling on Magnetic Tunnel Junction Molecular Spintronics Devices

This study utilizes Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate that while biquadratic exchange coupling can explain complex magnetic phase orientations in molecular spintronics devices, Heisenberg coupling remains the dominant force governing overall magnetization and stability.

Andoniaina Mariah Randriambololona, Hayden Brown, Eva Mutunga, Andrew Grizzle, Christopher DAngelo, Pawan Tyagi2026-05-14🔬 cond-mat

A hyperbolic cell cycle law for early embryonic developmental timing

This paper proposes and validates a universal hyperbolic law for early embryonic cell cycle timing across diverse metazoans, demonstrating that developmental slowing is driven by the coupling of finite maternal resource consumption to biochemical reaction kinetics rather than chronological time.

Adrián Aguirre-Tamaral, Johanna Royer, Magdalena Schindler-Johnson, Jun-Ru Lee, Daniel R. Amor, Nicoletta I. Petridou, Bernat Corominas-Murtra2026-05-14🧬 q-bio

Theory of Rayleigh molecular light scattering by isotropic polar fluids revisited

This paper revises the molecular theory of Rayleigh light scattering in dense isotropic polar fluids by adapting electrostatic local field concepts to propagating waves, deriving simple analytical equations for rotational and dipole-induced dipole contributions across pure and mixed scattering scenarios.

P. M. Déjardin2026-05-14🔬 cond-mat

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cond-mat.stat-mech

A microcanonical approach to criticality in the mean-field ϕ4\phi^4ϕ4 model: evidence of intrinsic microcanonical structure before the thermodynamic limit