Disordering effects of color in nonequilibrium phase transitions induced by multiplicative noise

TL;DR

This paper investigates how colored noise (with memory) affects nonequilibrium phase transitions in a model, revealing that noise correlation time tends to disorder the system, contrary to equilibrium expectations.

Contribution

It extends the analysis of a known noise-induced phase transition model beyond white noise, showing that noise memory destabilizes ordered phases.

Findings

Noise correlation time leads to disorder in the phase transition.

Memory effects suppress the ordered phase even with strong spatial coupling.

Numerical simulations confirm the theoretical predictions.

Abstract

The model introduced by Van den Broeck, Parrondo and Toral [Phys. Rev. Lett.73, 3395 (1994)] -- leading to a second-order-like noise-induced nonequilibrium phase transition which shows reentrance as a function of the (multiplicative) noise intensity $\sigma$-- is investigated beyond the white-noise assumption. Through a Markovian approximation and within a mean-field treatment it is found that -- in striking contrast with the usual behavior for equilibrium phase transitions -- for noise self-correlation time $\tau>0$, the stable phase for (diffusive) spatial coupling $D\to\infty$ is always the disordered one. Another surprising result is that a large noise "memory" also tends to destroy order. These results are supported by numerical simulations.