https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2005-00029-3
Generic two-phase coexistence in nonequilibrium systems
1
Instituto Carlos I de Física Teórica y Computacional,
Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
2
Departamento de Física da Faculdade de Ciências e
Centro de Física Teórica e Computacional da Universidade de
Lisboa, Avenida Professor Gama Pinto, 2, P-1649-003 Lisboa Codex,
Portugal
Corresponding author: a mamunoz@onsager.ugr.es
Received:
9
August
2004
Revised:
21
October
2004
Published online:
11
February
2005
A beautifully simple model introduced a couple of decades ago, Toom's cellular automaton, revealed that non-equilibrium systems may exhibit generic bistability, i.e. two-phase coexistence over a finite area of the (two-dimensional) phase diagram, in violation of the equilibrium Gibbs phase rule. In this paper we analyse two interfacial models, describing more realistic situations, that share with Toom's model a phase diagram with a broad region of phase coexistence. An analysis of the interfacial models yields conditions for generic bistability in terms of physically relevant parameters that may be controlled experimentally.
PACS: 05.70.Fh – Phase transitions: general studies / 05.40.Ca – Noise / 05.50.+q – Lattice theory and statistics (Ising, Potts, etc.)
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2005
