2377 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.
This paper formulates a continuum quantum mechanics for dipole-conserving fractons, revealing that while single particles possess only zero modes and two-body dynamics exhibit a spectral transition at a critical parameter, the three-body problem displays complex spectral transitions and quantum analogs of fracton attractors, suggesting that the lack of ergodicity in classical fracton systems persists upon quantization.
By combining experiments, simulations, and random-matrix theory, this study reveals that while the distribution of wavefront shaping enhancement factors aligns with theoretical predictions in weakly scattering media, strongly scattering systems exhibit giant fluctuations that serve as a sensitive probe for long-range mesoscopic correlations.
This paper investigates operator growth in Brownian spin SYK models by deriving a master equation for the full operator-size distribution, enabling exact large- solutions and a systematic expansion that reveals the critical role of higher-order corrections in quantum scrambling dynamics.
This paper proposes a unified entropic framework for real fluids that utilizes Geometrothermodynamics to link macroscopic critical phenomena and intermolecular force balances to the scalar curvature of the equilibrium manifold, while introducing universal dimensionless ratios and Bayesian statistical methods to characterize and validate the geometric scaling behavior across different equations of state.
This paper investigates how unsupervised autoencoders trained on Ising model spin configurations learn macroscopic variables, revealing two distinct dynamical regimes (magnetization-dominated and energy-dominated) controlled by hyperparameters and characterized by transient scaling and non-equilibrium flow fields that offer a physical interpretation of learning dynamics.
This paper investigates Krylov spread complexity for time-dependent quantum systems by formulating the problem within Floquet theory for periodic driving and extending the framework to general time-dependent cases using both globally and piecewise truncated Magnus expansions to ensure reliable analysis when standard expansions fail.
This paper demonstrates that a Wigner-type random matrix with specific row-column correlations exhibits a cascade of distinct Baik--Ben Arous--Péché (BBP) transitions, where a countable family of outlier eigenvalues detaches from the semicircle bulk at critical coupling strengths determined by the singular values of a Volterra integral operator.
This paper proves that Lee-Yang Hamiltonians under a uniform Z-field possess a spectral gap of at least h/4 independent of system size and coupling strengths, a result derived from partition function zero-freeness that enables a polynomial-time quantum algorithm for computing their ground state energy.
This paper introduces a two-axis interpolation framework that treats spatial dimension and spin-component number as continuous parameters to predict critical exponents and couplings for the O model by anchoring exact limiting solutions, while establishing that such interpolation succeeds only for observables exhibiting monotonic variation between these anchors.
This paper establishes a novel analytical framework linking Krylov complexity to the Loschmidt amplitude by expressing the former as a derivative with respect to an angular perturbation, thereby deriving general relations between survival amplitudes and complexity measures while proposing a classification scheme for quantum dynamics based on perturbation strength.