Condensation of Fluctuations in and out of Equilibrium

Marco Zannetti, Federico Corberi, Giuseppe Gonnella

Published 2014-04-15Version 1

Condensation of fluctuations is an interesting phenomenon conceptually distinct from condensation on average. One stricking feature is that, contrary to what happens on average, condensation of fluctuations may occurr even in the absence of interaction. The explanation emerges from the duality between large deviation events in the given system and typical events in a new and appropriately biased system. This surprising phenomenon is investigated in the context of the Gaussian model, chosen as paradigmatical non interacting system, before and after an istantaneous temperature quench. It is shown that the bias induces a mean-field-like effective interaction responsible of the condensation on average. Phase diagrams, covering both the equilibrium and the off-equilibrium regimes, are derived for observables representative of generic behaviors.