Nonintegrability-driven Transition from Kinetics to Hydrodynamics

Nonintegrability plays a crucial role in thermalization and transport processes in many-body Hamiltonian systems, yet its quantitative effects remain unclear. To reveal the connection between the macroscopic relaxation properties and the underlying dynamics, the one-dimensional diatomic hard-point model as an illustrating example was studied analytically and numerically. We demonstrate how the system transitions from kinetic behavior to hydrodynamic behavior as the nonintegrability strength increases. Specifically, for the thermalization dynamics, we find a power-law relationship between the thermalization time and the perturbation strength near integrable regime, whereas in the far from integrable regime, the hydrodynamics dominates and the thermalization time becomes independent of the perturbation strength and exhibits a strong size-dependent behavior. Regarding transport behavior, our results further establish a threshold for the nonintegrable strength of this transition. Consequently, we can predict which behavior dominates the transport properties of the system. Especially, an explicit expression of the thermal conductivity contributed by the kinetics is given. Finally, possible applications were briefly discussed.

Weicheng Fu, Zhen Wang, Yisen Wang, Yong Zhang, Hong Zhao · 2023