Directed percolation criticality in turbulent liquid crystals

TL;DR

This paper provides the first comprehensive experimental evidence that a phase transition between turbulent states in liquid crystals belongs to the directed percolation universality class, confirming theoretical predictions about non-equilibrium critical phenomena.

Contribution

It experimentally demonstrates the directed percolation criticality in turbulent liquid crystals, establishing a new physical realization of this universality class.

Findings

Critical exponents match directed percolation in (2+1) dimensions.

First experimental evidence of an absorbing phase transition in this class.

Statistical properties of turbulence regimes are thoroughly characterized.

Abstract

We experimentally investigate the critical behavior of a phase transition between two topologically different turbulent states of electrohydrodynamic convection in nematic liquid crystals. The statistical properties of the observed spatiotemporal intermittency regimes are carefully determined, yielding a complete set of static critical exponents in full agreement with those defining the directed percolation class in (2+1) dimensions. This constitutes the first clear and comprehensive experimental evidence of an absorbing phase transition in this prominent non-equilibrium universality class.