Metastability in Markov processes

DOI10.1088/1742-5468/2006/08/P08013MaRDI QIDQ5239303zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors H. Larralde, F. Leyvraz, David P. Sanders

Publication date 22 October 2019

Published in Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0608439

zbMATH Keywords

classical Monte Carlo simulationsmetastable statesstochastic particle dynamics (theory)

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Interacting random processes; statistical mechanics type models; percolation theory (60K35) Monte Carlo methods applied to problems in statistical mechanics (82M31)

Abstract: We present a formalism to describe slowly decaying systems in the context of finite Markov chains obeying detailed balance. We show that phase space can be partitioned into approximately decoupled regions, in which one may introduce restricted Markov chains which are close to the original process but do not leave these regions. Within this context, we identify the conditions under which the decaying system can be considered to be in a metastable state. Furthermore, we show that such metastable states can be described in thermodynamic terms and define their free energy. This is accomplished showing that the probability distribution describing the metastable state is indeed proportional to the equilibrium distribution, as is commonly assumed. We test the formalism numerically in the case of the two-dimensional kinetic Ising model, using the Wang--Landau algorithm to show this proportionality explicitly, and confirm that the proportionality constant is as derived in the theory. Finally, we extend the formalism to situations in which a system can have several metastable states.

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Cites work

• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1332581 (Why is no real title available?)
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• Large Deviations and Metastability
• Markov Chains
• Metastability and low lying spectra in reversible Markov chains
• Metastability and nucleation for the Blume-Capel model. Different mechanisms of transition.
• Metastability in Glauber dynamics in the low-temperature limit: Beyond exponential asymp\-totics.
• Rigorous treatment of metastable states in the van der Waals-Maxwell theory
• Theory of nonequilibrium first-order phase transitions for stochastic dynamics

Cited in

(12)

• On the essential features of metastability: Tunnelling time and critical configurations
• Pico-canonical ensembles: A theoretical description of metastable states
• Metastability of exponentially perturbed Markov chains
• Rigorous treatment of metastable states in the van der Waals-Maxwell theory
• On metastability
• Metastable Markov chains
• Metastable states, transitions, basins and borders at finite temperatures
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2026093 (Why is no real title available?)
• Unstable decay and state selection
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