Aging-induced continuous phase transition

TL;DR

This paper introduces aging into the noisy voter model, revealing a shift from a discontinuous to a second order phase transition in the system, which aligns with the Ising universality class, supported by analytical and numerical evidence.

Contribution

It is the first to incorporate aging into the noisy voter model, demonstrating a transition change and characterizing it analytically and numerically.

Findings

Transition shifts from discontinuous to second order due to aging.

The phase transition belongs to the Ising universality class.

Analytical solutions match extensive numerical simulations.

Abstract

Aging is considered as the property of the elements of a system to be less prone to change states as they get older. We incorporate aging into the noisy voter model, a stochastic model in which the agents modify their binary state by means of noise and pair-wise interactions. Interestingly, due to aging the system passes from a finite-size discontinuous transition between ordered (ferromagnetic) and disordered (paramagnetic) phases to a second order phase transition, well defined in the thermodynamic limit, belonging to the Ising universality class. We characterize it analytically by finding the stationary solution of an infinite set of mean field equations. The theoretical predictions are tested with extensive numerical simulations in low dimensional lattices and complex networks. We finally employ the aging properties to understand the symmetries broken in the phase transition.