Aging processes in systems with anomalous slow dynamics

Abstract

Recently, different numerical studies of coarsening in disordered systems have shown the existence of a crossover from an initial, transient, power-law domain growth to a slower, presumably logarithmic, growth. However, due to the very slow dynamics and the long-lasting transient regime, one is usually not able to fully enter the asymptotic regime when investigating the relaxation of these systems toward equilibrium. We here study two simple driven systems-the one-dimensional ABC model and a related domain model with simplified dynamics-that are known to exhibit anomalous slow relaxation where the asymptotic logarithmic growth regime is readily accessible. Studying two-times correlation and response functions, we focus on aging processes and dynamical scaling during logarithmic growth. Using the time-dependent growth length as the scaling variable, a simple aging picture emerges that is expected to also prevail in the asymptotic regime of disordered ferromagnets and spin glasses.