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Information Dynamics at a Phase Transition

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Abstract

We propose a new way of investigating phase transitions in the context of information theory. We use an information-entropic measure of spatial complexity known as configurational entropy (CE) to quantify both the storage and exchange of information in a lattice simulation of a Ginzburg–Landau model with a scalar order parameter coupled to a heat bath. The CE is built from the Fourier spectrum of fluctuations around the mean-field and reaches a minimum at criticality. In particular, we investigate the behavior of CE near and at criticality, exploring the relation between information and the emergence of ordered domains. We show that as the temperature is increased from below, the CE displays three essential scaling regimes at different spatial scales: scale free, turbulent, and critical. Together, they offer an information-entropic characterization of critical behavior where the storage and fidelity of information processing is maximized at criticality.

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Acknowledgements

DS was supported by a Hull Fellowship at Dartmouth College. MG was supported in part by a US Department of Energy Grant DE-SC001038.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Sleep and Consciousness, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53719, USA

    Damian Sowinski

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 03755, USA

    Marcelo Gleiser

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  1. Damian Sowinski
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  2. Marcelo Gleiser
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Correspondence to Marcelo Gleiser.

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Sowinski, D., Gleiser, M. Information Dynamics at a Phase Transition. J Stat Phys 167, 1221–1232 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-017-1762-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-017-1762-6

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