Anomalous Criticality of Absorbing State Transition toward Jamming
Pith reviewed 2026-05-18 09:48 UTC · model grok-4.3
The pith
The absorbing-state transition in sheared particles deviates from the Manna class near jamming because of crystallization, glass states, and contact heterogeneity.
A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.
Core claim
Re-examination of biased random organization models in three dimensions shows that the conjectured equivalence between jamming and the Manna-class absorbing transition breaks down at high density. Monodisperse systems undergo crystallization that disrupts the absorbing transition. Dense binary mixtures display a distinct absorbing-to-active-glass transition, indicating a new dynamic universality class. Quenched heterogeneity near jamming smears the criticality through Griffiths effects and drives the system toward heterogeneous directed percolation. Close-packed crystal structures lack Griffiths effects yet still deviate from Manna behavior. A field theory with fractional time dynamics links
What carries the argument
A field theory with fractional time dynamics that links jamming, disorder, and dynamic criticality.
If this is right
- Jamming can be analyzed through dynamic absorbing-state transitions rather than purely static geometric criteria.
- Contact-network heterogeneity near jamming replaces the Manna class with heterogeneous directed percolation.
- Crystallization and active-glass phases interrupt the expected absorbing transition at high density.
- Dynamic universality classes in athermal sheared systems depend on particle-size distribution and density.
- Fractional time dynamics provide a unified description of how disorder modifies dynamic criticality.
Where Pith is reading between the lines
- Similar anomalies should appear in other periodically driven disordered media once density or heterogeneity is increased.
- Experiments on sheared granular packs at packing fractions close to jamming could detect the predicted Griffiths-smearing signatures.
- Larger-scale simulations could quantify how the crossover from Manna to heterogeneous directed percolation scales with system size.
- The fractional-time framework may generalize to systems with different driving protocols beyond periodic shear.
Load-bearing premise
The biased random organization models remain faithful minimal representations of athermal particle dynamics under periodic shearing even at high densities where crystallization and contact heterogeneity become dominant.
What would settle it
Direct observation of standard Manna-class critical exponents in three-dimensional monodisperse systems at densities where crystallization is suppressed would falsify the claim of anomalous criticality.
Figures
read the original abstract
Jamming transition is traditionally regarded as a geometric transition governed by static contact networks. Recently, dynamic phase transitions of athermal particles under periodic shearing provide a new lens on this problem, leading to a conjecture that jamming transition corresponds to an absorbing-state transition within the Manna (conserved directed percolation) universality class. Here, by re-examining biased random organization models, minimal models for particles under periodic shearing that the conjecture is based on, we uncover several criticality anomalies at high density at odds with the Manna universality class. In three-dimensional monodisperse systems, we find crystallization disrupts the absorbing transition, while in dense binary mixtures, a distinct transition from absorbing to active-glass state emerges, signifying a new dynamic universality class. Close to the jamming point, the quenched heterogeneity in the contact network of binary systems smears the dynamic criticality via Griffiths effects and drives the system toward heterogeneous directed percolation. For close-packed crystal structures, Griffiths effect is absent. However, the dynamic criticality still seems to deviate from the Manna model. These phenomena are explained by a field theory with fractional time dynamics that links jamming, disorder and dynamic criticality.
Editorial analysis
A structured set of objections, weighed in public.
Referee Report
Summary. The manuscript re-examines biased random organization (BRO) models as minimal representations of athermal particle dynamics under periodic shearing. It reports several anomalies at high densities that deviate from the Manna universality class: crystallization disrupts the absorbing transition in 3D monodisperse systems, dense binary mixtures exhibit a distinct absorbing-to-active-glass transition, and quenched contact heterogeneity near jamming produces Griffiths smearing toward heterogeneous directed percolation. These observations are explained by a proposed field theory incorporating fractional time dynamics that unifies jamming, disorder, and dynamic criticality.
Significance. The simulation results identifying deviations from the standard Manna-class conjecture at high densities are of interest for the jamming-absorbing-state correspondence. If the fractional-time field theory can be derived from the BRO rules or shown to reproduce the measured exponents quantitatively, the work would offer a new framework connecting dynamic criticality, disorder, and jamming; the current presentation leaves this link largely phenomenological.
major comments (2)
- [§4] §4 (field theory): the fractional time derivative is introduced after the simulation anomalies are reported, but no derivation from the microscopic BRO update rules is given and no table or figure directly compares predicted exponents (e.g., β or z) with the measured values; this is load-bearing for the claim that the theory explains the anomalies.
- [§3.3] §3.3 and Table 2 (binary mixtures near jamming): the reported shift toward heterogeneous directed percolation via Griffiths effects is central to the high-density claim, yet finite-size scaling details, error bars on the exponents, and explicit exclusion criteria for crystallized configurations are not provided, weakening the evidence that a new universality class has been identified.
minor comments (2)
- [Abstract and §4] Notation for the fractional order α is used without an explicit definition or reference to its numerical value in the main text; adding this would improve readability.
- [Figures 3–5] Figure captions should state the system sizes and number of independent runs used for each data point to allow readers to assess the statistical significance of the reported deviations from Manna exponents.
Simulated Author's Rebuttal
We thank the referee for the careful and constructive review of our manuscript. We address the major comments point by point below and have updated the manuscript to include additional details and clarifications.
read point-by-point responses
-
Referee: §4 (field theory): the fractional time derivative is introduced after the simulation anomalies are reported, but no derivation from the microscopic BRO update rules is given and no table or figure directly compares predicted exponents (e.g., β or z) with the measured values; this is load-bearing for the claim that the theory explains the anomalies.
Authors: We agree that a derivation from the BRO rules would be desirable. However, such a derivation is technically involved and is left for future work. To address the lack of direct comparison, we have added a new table in the revised manuscript that lists the measured exponents alongside the predictions from the fractional-time field theory, demonstrating quantitative agreement within error bars for the key quantities β and z. This supports the explanatory role of the theory for the observed anomalies. revision: partial
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Referee: §3.3 and Table 2 (binary mixtures near jamming): the reported shift toward heterogeneous directed percolation via Griffiths effects is central to the high-density claim, yet finite-size scaling details, error bars on the exponents, and explicit exclusion criteria for crystallized configurations are not provided, weakening the evidence that a new universality class has been identified.
Authors: We have revised the manuscript to include the requested details. In §3.3, we now provide explicit finite-size scaling collapses for system sizes ranging from L=16 to L=128, along with the scaling exponents used. Error bars on all reported exponents in Table 2 have been included, calculated from at least 20 independent simulations. Additionally, we have specified the exclusion criteria for crystallized configurations: any run with a crystallinity measure (based on the Steinhardt order parameter) above 0.4 is excluded from the averaging, and we verify that the Griffiths smearing persists in the remaining disordered samples. These revisions bolster the evidence for the new universality class and the role of Griffiths effects. revision: yes
- A direct derivation of the fractional time derivative from the microscopic rules of the biased random organization model
Circularity Check
No circularity: simulations report anomalies independently; fractional-time theory introduced phenomenologically as explanatory framework
full rationale
The paper first presents direct simulation results from biased random organization models showing deviations from Manna-class expectations (crystallization in 3D monodisperse systems, active-glass transition in dense mixtures, Griffiths smearing near jamming). These are empirical observations from the microscopic rules. The field theory with fractional time dynamics is then invoked to link and explain the anomalies. No quoted equations show the fractional order or exponents being fitted to the same data set, nor any self-definition where the theory's parameters are defined in terms of the reported anomalies. The derivation chain remains self-contained: simulations stand as independent input, and the theory functions as a proposed unifying description rather than a tautological renaming or fit.
Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger
axioms (1)
- domain assumption Biased random organization models are minimal faithful representations of athermal particles under periodic shearing.
invented entities (1)
-
field theory with fractional time dynamics
no independent evidence
Lean theorems connected to this paper
-
IndisputableMonolith/Cost/FunctionalEquation.leanwashburn_uniqueness_aczel unclear?
unclearRelation between the paper passage and the cited Recognition theorem.
We also propose a field theory with fractional time dynamics which unifies both the absorbing to active-glass transition and heterogeneous DP
-
IndisputableMonolith/Foundation/AlexanderDuality.leanalexander_duality_circle_linking unclear?
unclearRelation between the paper passage and the cited Recognition theorem.
the dynamic of ψ(t) field in Eq.(4) is sub-diffusive due to cage effect, corresponding to fractional time derivative with 0<θ<1
What do these tags mean?
- matches
- The paper's claim is directly supported by a theorem in the formal canon.
- supports
- The theorem supports part of the paper's argument, but the paper may add assumptions or extra steps.
- extends
- The paper goes beyond the formal theorem; the theorem is a base layer rather than the whole result.
- uses
- The paper appears to rely on the theorem as machinery.
- contradicts
- The paper's claim conflicts with a theorem or certificate in the canon.
- unclear
- Pith found a possible connection, but the passage is too broad, indirect, or ambiguous to say the theorem truly supports the claim.
Reference graph
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discussion (0)
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