Escape from metastability via aging: non-equilibrium dynamics in a one-dimensional Ising model

Abstract
The nonequilibrium dynamics of a one-dimensional Ising model with uniform, short-ranged three-spin interactions is investigated. It is shown that this model possesses an exponentially large number of metastable configurations that are stable against single spin flips. This glass-like situation results in a complete freezing of the system at low temperatures for times smaller than an intrinsic time-scale, which diverges exponentially with inverse temperature. Via thermal activation the system eventually escapes from this frozen state, which signals the onset of aging by domain growth.

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