Landau theory, effective temperature, and tricritical phenomena in a holographic nonequilibrium steady state

Abstract: We investigate the critical exponents $(γ,ν)$ at the current-driven tricritical point (TCP) associated with chiral symmetry breaking in a nonequilibrium steady state described by the D3/D7 model. In the symmetry-broken phase, we find that, unlike in the conventional Landau theory, both $γ$ and $ν$ can take values different from those predicted by the Landau theory and depend on the path along which the TCP is approached in the phase diagram. However, when the TCP is approached with the ratio of the effective temperature to the heat bath temperature, $T_{<em>}/T$, held fixed, the critical exponents agree with those of the Landau theory. These results suggest that the critical phenomena at the current-driven TCP may be described by the Landau theory along the $T_{</em>}/T$-fixed line, whereas a nontrivial extension of the Landau theory is required for a more general description of the critical phenomena along arbitrary paths.