Yang-Lee zeroes for an urn model for the separation of sand
Abstract
We apply the Yang-Lee theory of phase transitions to an urn model of separation of sand. The effective partition function of this nonequilibrium system can be expressed as a polynomial of the size-dependent effective fugacity
z
. Numerical calculations show that in the thermodynamic limit, the zeros of the effective partition function are located on the unit circle in the complex
z
-plane. In the complex plane of the actual control parameter certain roots converge to the transition point of the model. Thus the Yang-Lee theory can be applied to a wider class of nonequilibrium systems than those considered previously.