Slow relaxation in long-range interacting systems with stochastic dynamics

Abstract: Quasistationary states are long-lived nonequilibrium states, observed in some systems with long-range interactions under deterministic Hamiltonian evolution. These intriguing non-Boltzmann states relax to equilibrium over times which diverge algebraically with the system size. To test the robustness of this phenomenon to non-deterministic dynamical processes, we have generalized the paradigmatic model exhibiting such a behavior, the Hamiltonian Mean-Field model, to include energy-conserving stochastic processes. Analysis, based on the Boltzmann equation, a scaling approach and numerical studies, demonstrates that in the long time limit, the system relaxes to the equilibrium state on timescales which do not diverge algebraically with the system size. Thus, quasistationarity takes place only as a crossover phenomenon on times determined by the strength of the stochastic process.