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

Is the Eyring Plot Misleading? A Case for Arrhenius Analysis of Activation Parameters

This paper challenges the prevailing view that the Eyring plot is more fundamental than the Arrhenius plot by demonstrating that harmonic models yield exact linearity in Arrhenius representations, that the Eyring formulation's quantum appearance stems from normalization conventions rather than physics, and that an alternative Arrhenius-based framework offers more physically relevant and interpretable activation parameters.

Titus S. van Erp2026-07-13

🔬 physics

The Statistical physics of unsaturated soil water: kinetic theory and non commutative pore water dynamics

This paper presents a multiscale statistical-mechanical framework that unifies the dynamics of unsaturated soil water into a single kinetic continuum equation, demonstrating that classical models like Richards' equation and phenomena such as preferential flow and hysteresis emerge as specific limits or geometric consequences of a pore-resolved Damkohler number governing non-equilibrium pore occupancy.

Riccardo Rigon2026-07-13

🔬 condensed matter

Level statistics in the fractal phase of generalized Rosenzweig--Porter models

This paper investigates the level statistics of generalized Rosenzweig--Porter models in their fractal phase, demonstrating through analytical methods and extensive numerical simulations that the full counting statistics at the Thouless energy scale exhibit a simple, universal form across various model variations.

Victor Delapalme, Leticia F. Cugliandolo, Alexander K. Hartmann, Marco Tarzia, Davide Venturelli2026-07-13

🔬 condensed matter

Symmetry-Protected Pinch Curves in Classical Spin Liquids

This paper introduces and characterizes "pinch-curve spin liquids," a new class of classical spin liquids where inversion symmetry protects one-dimensional algebraic curves of pinch-point singularities in momentum space, enabling programmable geometries and novel infrared Gauss-law transitions.

Takumi Fukushima, Han Yan2026-07-13

🔬 condensed matter

Quantum Chaos with a Macroscopic Zero-Mode Sector

This paper demonstrates that constrained spin chains with chiral symmetry can evade typical chaotic spectral filling by hosting an exponentially large manifold of symmetry-protected exact zero modes, which are separated from the chaotic bulk by a sharp gap generated through level repulsion.

Cheryne Jonay, Kun W. Kim, Frank Pollmann, Alexander Altland2026-07-13

⚛️ quantum physics

Fluctuation theorems for thermally isolated driven quantum systems: nonadiabaticity, excess work and strong inequalities

This paper extends C. Jarzynski's work on thermodynamic inequalities to thermally isolated driven quantum systems by deriving detailed and integral fluctuation theorems that physically interpret stochastic quantities as nonadiabaticity and excess work, thereby establishing stronger inequalities related to irreversibility and the Second Law.

J. V. M. Steimetz, M. Campisi, M. V. S. Bonança2026-07-13

🔬 condensed matter

A simple time coarse graining method for molecular dynamics simulations of liquids

This paper proposes a time coarse-graining method for molecular dynamics simulations of liquids that replaces the hard-core repulsion of the original potential with a smooth harmonic function, enabling significantly larger time steps while preserving the system's dynamic properties.

Maxime Martin, Levi Pereon, Quoc Tuan Truong, Victor Teboul2026-07-10

🔬 condensed matter

Topological flowscape reveals state transitions in nonreciprocal living matter

This paper utilizes starfish embryos to demonstrate how nonreciprocal interactions drive structural transitions in living matter, introducing a novel framework of "topological flowscapes" to map and quantify the dynamic shifts between ordered and disordered collective states.

Hyunseok Lee, EliseAnne Koskelo, Shreyas Gokhale, Junang Li, Chenyi Fei, Chih-Wei Joshua Liu, Lisa Lin, Jorn Dunkel, Dom (…)2026-07-10

🔬 materials science

A Local Structural Basis to Resolve Amorphous Ices

By applying a new probabilistic data-driven framework to molecular simulations of water, this study reveals that the distinction between low-density and high-density amorphous ices is encoded within the first coordination shell via local hydrogen density, supporting a first-order-like phase transition mechanism characterized by structural hysteresis that depends critically on the choice of microscopic descriptors.

Quinn M. Gallagher, Ryan J. Szukalo, Nicolas Giovambattista, Pablo G. Debenedetti, Michael A. Webb2026-07-10

🔬 condensed matter

Moiré magnetism in a bilayer Ising model

Using large-scale Monte Carlo simulations on a classical bilayer Ising model, this study demonstrates that moiré-modulated interlayer coupling induces a smooth crossover to domain-textured magnetic states without breaking layer symmetry or altering the conventional two-dimensional Ising universality class of the ordering transition.

Ryan Flynn, Anders W. Sandvik2026-07-10

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