Absorbing phase transitions in systems with mediated interactions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that mediated interactions in sheared soft materials lead to a new universality class of absorbing phase transitions, distinct from known classes, supported by large-scale simulations and theoretical analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a minimal model showing mediated interactions induce a novel universality class of absorbing phase transitions, with derived critical exponents.

Findings

Mediated interactions create a new universality class.

Critical exponents differ from Conserved Directed Percolation.

Large-scale simulations support the theoretical predictions.

Abstract

Experiments of periodically sheared colloidal suspensions or soft amorphous solids display a transition from reversible to irreversible particle motion that, when analysed stroboscopically in time, is interpreted as an absorbing phase transition with infinitely many absorbing states. In these systems interactions mediated by hydrodynamics or elasticity are present, causing passive regions to be affected by nearby active ones. We show that mediated interactions induce a new universality class of absorbing phase transitions, distinct from Conserved Directed Percolation, and we obtain the corresponding critical exponents. We do so with large-scale numerical simulations of a minimal model for the stroboscopic dynamics of sheared soft materials and derive the minimal field theoretical description.