- Open Access
Classical fractons: Local chaos, global broken ergodicity, and an arrow of time
Phys. Rev. B 111, 245134 – Published 16 June, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/g2l1-s2vy
Abstract
We report new results on classical nonrelativistic dipole conserving particles—fractons. These have been previously shown to exhibit “Machian” dynamics where the motion of one particle requires the presence of others in its proximity, such that dynamics produces ergodicity breaking steady states characterized by clusters. In this work, we show that although the global state breaks ergodicity, a limited version of ergodic behavior is retained within the clusters which may or may not be chaotic, depending on the nature of the microscopic Hamiltonian. In certain cases, we show that the dynamics can be mapped to that of a billiards particle in various stadiums. We also show that the many-fracton trajectories characteristically exhibit a central time or “Janus point” and thus a generic nonequilibrium bidirectional arrow of time.
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