Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 8, 2026

Synthesis of Cyclic Polymers and Characterization of Their Diffusive Motion in the Melt State at the Single Molecule Level
Published on: September 26, 2016
Phase transitions and symmetry breaking in singular diffusion
Jochen Denzler1, Robert J McCann
1Department of Mathematics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-1300, USA.
Abstract:
The long-time asymptotics are determined for fast nonlinear diffusion by linearizing Otto's gradient descent model at the Barenblatt profile. The spectrum of the entropy is explicitly determined. The dynamics are found to undergo a phase transition in which rotational symmetry is broken as the strength of the nonlinearity is varied.
Related Concept Videos
Interference and Diffraction
Phase Transitions
Thermal Sigmatropic Reactions: Overview
Sigmatropic shifts are classified based on an order term [i, j ], where i and j indicate the number of atoms across which each end of the σ bond migrates. Below are examples of a [3,3] sigmatropic shift in 1,5-hexadiene, referred to as...
Symmetry in Maxwell's Equations
Phase Transitions
Symmetry Elements in a Crystal

