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Freezing by heating in a driven mesoscopic system
1II. Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57/III, 70550 Stuttgart, Germany and Department of Biological Physics, Eotvos University, Budapest, Pazmany Peter Setany 1A, H-1117 Hungary.
Abstract:
We investigate a simple model corresponding to particles driven in opposite directions and interacting via a repulsive potential. The particles move off-lattice on a periodic strip and are subject to random forces as well. We show that this model-which can be considered as a continuum version of some driven diffusive systems-exhibits a paradoxical, new kind of transition called here "freezing by heating." One interesting feature of this transition is that a crystallized state with a higher total energy is obtained from a fluid state by increasing the amount of fluctuations.