† Corresponding author. E-mail:
Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11505115).
The dynamics of zero-range processes on complex networks is expected to be influenced by the topological structure of underlying networks. A real space complete condensation phase transition in the stationary state may occur. We study the finite density effects of the condensation transition in both the stationary and dynamical zero-range processes on scale-free networks. By means of grand canonical ensemble method, we predict analytically the scaling laws of the average occupation number with respect to the finite density for the steady state. We further explore the relaxation dynamics of the condensation phase transition. By applying the hierarchical evolution and scaling ansatz, a scaling law for the relaxation dynamics is predicted. Monte Carlo simulations are performed and the predicted density scaling laws are nicely validated.
Condensation phase transitions are abundant phenomena in nature and observed in various physical circumstances and stochastic processes, for instance, the Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) in cold dilute atomic gases,[1] jamming in traffic flow[2] and granular flow,[3,4] condensation of links in complex networks.[5–7] Although the equilibrium condensation phase transitions can be well described in the framework of equilibrium statistical mechanics,[8] building a consistent theory of nonequilibrium (condensation) phase transitions remains a big challenge. How such transitions arise and what dynamical nature they may have are particularly intriguing questions to be answered. The long lasting efforts have been taken to investigation of interacting particle systems.[9] One of the important categories is so-called driven diffusive systems.[10] These systems are driven away from equilibrium by external forces, and may evolve toward a nonequilibrium steady state. In addition, they exhibit non-trivial behavior such as phase separation[11] or phase transitions (even in one spatial dimension).[12]
Among the above-mentioned systems, the zero-range processes (ZRPs), introduced by Spitzer[13] roughly half century ago, has attracted considerable attention due to the fact that it is one of a few rare examples of analytically tractable nonequilibrium models. For recent reviews, see e.g., Refs. [14,15] and the references therein. The prototype of ZRP is a stochastic particle system defined on one-dimensional regular lattice of given number of sites and particles hop onto the nearest neighbors (NNs) with some transition rate, say, u(n). This rate function depends only on the occupation number n of its current position, rather than the other sites. This defines the zero-range property of the process. If u(n) is decreasing in n, then an effective attraction between particles is presented. As a result, a condensation transition will occur if ρ exceeds some critical density ρc, and a macroscopically finite fraction of particles condense on a single site. The condensation phase transitions in ZRPs have been studied based on periodic lattices in Refs. [16,19].
From the perspective of complex networks, the underlying periodic lattice of ZRPs is simply regular fully connected network. However, many natural and manmade networks are self-organized as the scale-free (SF) networks (see e.g., Refs. [20–22] and the references therein). The SF networks are strongly inhomogeneous and highly clustering in architecture.[23] They also typically possess a power-law degree distribution,
In this paper we then focus on the finite density aspect of the condensation transition of the static and dynamical ZRP defined on SF networks. As we will show in the following, based on the grand canonical ensemble (GCE) approach, we predict a novel scaling law in the condensation phase transition with respect to (w.r.t.) the finite density. Another important issue we addressed in this study is the relaxation dynamics in the condensed phase transition. A hierarchical evolution occurs in relaxation dynamics, i.e., the relaxation proceeds from small degree nodes to larger and larger degree nodes. We predict that there exist the scaling laws of the average occupation number and the inverse participation ratio (IPR) w.r.t. the finite density in both steady state and relaxation dynamics. To verify our analytical predictions, Monte Carlo simulations are fulfilled for steady state and the relaxation dynamics, respectively. These predicted finite density scaling laws are nicely confirmed.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: in Section
Let us now consider the ZRP with N = ρ L particles hopping on an SF network, with ρ being the density of the particles, and L the number of nodes of the underlying SF networks. One has to keep in mind that in current situation, the density ρ is not fixed but variable. The degree (probability) distribution of the SF networks is characterized by power-law distribution
One of the important properties of the ZRP stationary state probability
We now present the general GCE approach that deals with the condensation phase transition in ZRPs.[16] The grand canonical partition function is defined by
The average occupation number of the i-th node mi reads
We will apply the above GEC approach to the ZRP on SF networks, and this is the major task in the following sections.
The so-called complete condensation phase transition in ZRPs on SF network with a given density ρ has been revealed in a recent study.[27] The structural inhomogeneity of SF networks plays an important role. To summarize, when the complete condensation occurs, almost a whole fraction of particles are condensed onto a few high-degree nodes. As we will see in the following, a variable finite density has some nontrivial effects on the condensation phase transitions.
Although the inter-particle interactions are determined by the parameter δ in hopping rate function, only the case of 0 < δ < 1 is what we are concerned in this paper. When δ = 0, the model is equivalent to the disordered ZRP with n-independent hopping rate functions, and has already been studied in Refs. [32–34]. The analytical solution in this case is simply mi = xi/(1 – xi). When δ = 1, the hopping rate function becomes u(n) = n, which is proportional to the number of particles. Physically this corresponds to fully independent motion of particles, and the system consists of N non-interacting random particles. One may solve the occupation number distribution mi(z) = zki,[27] as is expected.
We then pay our attention to 0 < δ < 1. To solve the average occupation number mi in this general case, one has to resort to the approximate expression of
The hub owns the most links to another nodes, its fugacity is
On the other hand, if we assume xmin ≪ 1, or equivalently kc ≫ kmin, the density can be decomposed into a fluid part ρf and a condensed part ρc:
For δ < δc, we have
We summarize our predicted results in Table
In order to verify the theoretical predictions of the scaling laws by previous GCE analysis, we perform the following Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. The underlying SF network is generated using the Barábasi–Albert model,[23] with a degree distribution
To see the presence of the finite density effect, in Fig.
The predicted finite density effects can be viewed from the other perspective. From Eqs. (
The preceding theoretical predictions show that the occupation number distribution in the steady state is determined not only by the degree distribution
So far only has a little been known about the dynamics of condensation in ZRP.[17,37,39] The finite density effects on the relaxation dynamics is hence one of the important issues to be addressed. In the following we only consider the case of δ < δc, in which a condensation phase transition occurs. We rely on the MC simulations and the scaling ansatz in order to understand the dynamical scaling properties.
Scaling ansatz is helpful for obtaining the qualitative features of relaxation dynamics. Previous studies[17,37] revealed that particles form macroscopic condensate by successive coarsening processes of the small clusters. The smaller clusters merge into larger ones, and grow until a single macroscopic condensate forms. The scaling hypothesis leads to the power-law growth of the relaxation time with the system size as tR ∼ Lβ, where β = 1 – δ is the dynamic exponent.
The highly heterogeneous structure of SF networks deeply affect the relaxation dynamics of interacting particles system defined on them. It was hypothesized in Ref. [27] that the relaxation process follows some hierarchical dynamics. There exist two characteristic time-dependent degree scales kΩc(t) and kΩ(t), which play the role of the crossover degree kc and the role of kmax, respectively. During transient time t, a subnetwork of small degree nodes is equilibrated first and the equilibrated subnetwork keep expanding until kΩ(t) grows in time and eventually reaches kmax.
It is natural to assume that a similar hierarchical dynamics occurs in a variable finite density situation. Starting from a fully random distribution at initial time, all particles behave as random walkers without interaction in a short period of time. Later on the distribution of particles further evolves and eventually approaches the steady state. Suppose that there exist two characteristic degree scales in hierarchical relaxation dynamics. Those nodes with degree k ≤ kΩ consist of a smaller equilibrated subnetwork, denoted by, say, Ω, of size LΩ < L in a transient time t ≪ tR, where tR is the relaxation time. Inside this subnetwork, the other characteristic degree kΩc plays the role of crossover degree kc of the whole network. The equilibrated subnetwork keeps growing to proceed to the higher hierarchy until kΩ reaches kmax of the network, the steady state of the ZRP is then formed. We may refer to those nodes with kΩ as the temporary hub.[28] The average occupation number mkΩ versus the transient time t, according to the hierarchical dynamics, scales as
The average occupation number of a node within the equilibrated network mk reads
The results of MC simulations on the finite density effects of the relaxation dynamics are shown in Fig.
As one can see from the left panel in the figure, the collapse of simulation data of mk w.r.t. kρδc indicates the scaling law in the evolution of the relaxation for different densities. To understand the condensation dynamics, an appropriate characteristic order parameter is the infinity time limit of inverse participation ratio (IPR) It,[27] which is defined as
In Fig.
In conclusion, we have explored the finite density effects on both the steady and dynamical properties of the ZRP on SF network with hopping rate function u(n) = nδ. By means of the GCE method, we find that the steady state condensation phase transition is driven not only by the disorder of the underlying SF network, but also by the finite density of the interacting particles. The crossover degree kc and the average occupation number mk are found to be both density dependent, and satisfy the corresponding scaling laws. In contrast to the ZRP on SF network with fixed density, the ratios of the crossover degree kc for two different densities at given size of network exhibit a non-constant behavior.
The influences of the density on the relaxation dynamics is also analytically investigated. The hierarchical characteristics of the relaxation dynamics renders the process proceeding from nodes with lower degrees toward those with higher degrees. With the help of the scaling ansatz, the scaling laws of the condensation transition (to the steady state) are predicted. At a specific time t ≪ tR the average occupation number scales as mk ∼ kρδc for various densities. The evolution of the ratio of IPR to its steady state limit follows a scaling law It/I∞ ∼ t/ρν with dynamical exponent ν = 1 – δ. To verify our analytically derived scaling laws, we have performed the Monte Carlo simulations for varied densities. The corresponding scaling relations are validated very well by numerical experiments.
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