2012/05/14 by Marcelo Gleiser, Nikitas Stamatopoulos · 2 citations
Computer Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Classical mechanics #Computer science #Context (archaeology) #Entropy (arrow of time) #Field (mathematics) #Mathematics #Measure (data warehouse) #Non-equilibrium thermodynamics #Nonlinear Dynamics and Pattern Formation #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Scalar field #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #Spontaneous symmetry breaking #Statistical physics #Symmetry breaking #Theoretical physics #astro-ph.CO #cond-mat.stat-mech #hep-th #nlin.PS
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.86.045004
published as Phys. Rev. D 86, 045004 (2012) · LaTeX, 9 pages, 5 figures, 1 table
arxiv created 2012/05/14 · openalex publication_date 2012/08/01 · arxiv updated 2012/08/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We propose a measure of order in the context of nonequilibrium field theory and argue that this measure, which we call relative configurational entropy (RCE), may be used to quantify the emergence of coherent low-entropy configurations, such as time-dependent or time-independent topological and nontopological spatially extended structures. As an illustration, we investigate the nonequilibrium dynamics of spontaneous symmetry breaking in three spatial dimensions. In particular, we focus on a model where a real scalar field, prepared initially in a symmetric thermal state, is quenched to a broken-symmetric state. For a certain range of initial temperatures, spatially localized, long-lived structures known as oscillons emerge in synchrony and remain until the field reaches equilibrium again. We show that the RCE correlates with the number density of oscillons, thus offering a quantitative measure of the emergence of nonperturbative spatiotemporal patterns that can be generalized to a variety of physical systems.