Constraint relaxation leads to jamming

Area of Science:

• Statistical Mechanics
• Non-equilibrium Physics
• Complex Systems

Background:

• Equilibrium systems typically show increased activity with added transitions.
• Out-of-equilibrium systems present unique challenges to predicting dynamic behavior.
• Understanding activity in non-equilibrium systems is crucial for various fields.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of adding transitions on the activity of out-of-equilibrium systems.
• To demonstrate how adding transitions can reduce or eliminate system activity.
• To explore the impact on absorbing state phase transitions.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of six related kinetically constrained lattice gas models.
• Numerical simulations to observe system dynamics.
• Development of a semi-mean-field approximation for theoretical description.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated that adding transitions to out-of-equilibrium systems can decrease activity.
• Observed cases where activity vanished due to transitions into less active states.
• Found that added transitions influence absorbing state phase transitions.
• Semi-mean-field approximation qualitatively matched simulation results.

Conclusions:

• The intuitive expectation of increased activity with added transitions does not hold for all out-of-equilibrium systems.
• The introduction of specific transitions can lead to non-intuitive reductions in system activity.
• Kinetically constrained models provide valuable insights into complex non-equilibrium dynamics.