Relaxation dynamics in a long-range system with mixed Hamiltonian and non-Hamiltonian interactions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the relaxation dynamics of a one-dimensional long-range system with mixed Hamiltonian and non-Hamiltonian interactions, revealing distinct behaviors and finite-size effects compared to purely Hamiltonian systems.

Contribution

It introduces a model with combined Hamiltonian and non-Hamiltonian long-range interactions and analyzes its relaxation dynamics and finite-size effects.

Findings

In the infinite-size limit, the system follows the Vlasov equation.

Non-Hamiltonian interactions prevent the system from reaching equilibrium.

Finite-size corrections are more significant than in purely Hamiltonian systems.

Abstract

Sometimes the dynamics of a physical system is described by non-Hamiltonian equations of motion, and additionally, the system is characterized by long-range interactions. A concrete example is that of particles interacting with light as encountered in free-electron laser and cold-atom experiments. In this work, we study the relaxation dynamics to non-Hamiltonian systems, more precisely, to systems with interactions of both Hamiltonian and non-Hamiltonian origin. Our model consists of $N$ globally-coupled particles moving on a circle of unit radius; the model is one-dimensional. We show that in the infinite-size limit, the dynamics, similarly to the Hamiltonian case, is described by the Vlasov equation. In the Hamiltonian case, the system eventually reaches an equilibrium state, even though one has to wait for a long time diverging with $N$ for this to happen. By contrast, in the non-Hamiltonian case, there is no equilibrium state that the system is expected to reach eventually. We characterize this state with its average magnetization. We find that the relaxation dynamics depends strongly on the relative weight of the Hamiltonian and non-Hamiltonian contributions to the interaction. When the non-Hamiltonian part is predominant, the magnetization attains a vanishing value, suggesting that the system does not sustain states with constant magnetization, either stationary or rotating. On the other hand, when the Hamiltonian part is predominant, the magnetization presents long-lived strong oscillations, for which we provide a heuristic explanation. Furthermore, we find that the finite-size corrections are much more pronounced than those in the Hamiltonian case; we justify this by showing that the Lenard-Balescu equation, which gives leading-order corrections to the Vlasov equation, does not vanish, contrary to what occurs in one-dimensional Hamiltonian long-range systems.