Dynamic phase transition in the two-dimensional kinetic Ising model in an oscillating field: universality with...

We study the dynamical response of a two-dimensional Ising model subject to a square-wave oscillating external field. In contrast to earlier studies, the system evolves under a so-called soft Glauber dynamic [Rikvold and Kolesik, J. Phys. A 35, L117 (2002)], for which both nucleation and interface propagation are slower and the interfaces smoother than for the standard Glauber dynamic. We choose the temperature and magnitude of the external field such that the metastable decay of the system following field reversal occurs through nucleation and growth of many droplets of the stable phase, i.e., the multidroplet regime. Using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, we find that the system undergoes a nonequilibrium phase transition, in which the symmetry-broken dynamic phase corresponds to an asymmetric stationary limit cycle for the time-dependent magnetization. The critical point is located where the half period of the external field is approximately equal to the metastable lifetime of the system. We employ finite-size scaling analysis to investigate the characteristics of this dynamical phase transition. The critical exponents and the fixed-point value of the fourth-order cumulant are found to be consistent with the universality class of the two-dimensional equilibrium Ising model. This universality class has previously been established for the same nonequilibrium model evolving under the standard Glauber dynamic, as well as in a different nonequilibrium model of CO oxidation. The results reported in the present paper support the hypothesis that this far-from-equilibrium phase transition is universal with respect to the choice of the stochastic dynamics.