The Nature of the Condensate in Mass Transport Models

Satya N. Majumdar 1, M. R. Evans 2, R. K. P. Zia 3

Physical Review Letters 94 (2005) 180601

We study the phenomenon of real space condensation in the steady state of a class of one dimensional mass transport models. We derive the criterion for the occurrence of a condensation transition and analyse the precise nature of the shape and the size of the condensate in the condensed phase. We find two distinct condensate regimes: one where the condensate is gaussian distributed and the particle number fluctuations scale normally as $L^{1/2}$ where $L$ is the system size, and a second regime where the particle number fluctuations become anomalously large and the condensate peak is non-gaussian. We interpret these results within the framework of sums of random variables.

  • 1. Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques (LPTMS),
    CNRS : UMR8626 – Université Paris XI – Paris Sud
  • 2. School of Physics,
    University of Edinburgh
  • 3. Department of Physics and Center for Stochastic Processes in Science and Engineering,
    Virginia Tech
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