title: Random fields at a nonequilibrium phase transition.
abstract: We study nonequilibrium phase transitions in the presence of disorder that locally breaks the symmetry between two equivalent macroscopic states. In low-dimensional equilibrium systems, such random-field disorder is known to have dramatic effects: it prevents spontaneous symmetry breaking and completely destroys the phase transition. In contrast, we show that the phase transition of the one-dimensional generalized contact process persists in the presence of random-field disorder. The ultraslow dynamics in the symmetry-broken phase is described by a Sinai walk of the domain walls between two different absorbing states. We discuss the generality and limitations of our theory, and we illustrate our results by large-scale Monte Carlo simulations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri 65409, USA.
authors.forename: Hatem
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Barghathi
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vojta