Nonequilibrium Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in a three-dimensional driven disordered system

Abstract

We demonstrate a three-dimensional Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transition in the random field XY model driven out of thermal equilibrium. By employing the spin-wave approximation and functional renormalization group approach, in the weak disorder regime, the three-dimensional driven random field XY model is found to exhibit a quasi-long-range order phase, wherein the correlation function shows power-law decay with a non-universal exponent that depends on the disorder strength. This result is consistent with that reported in a previous numerical study. We further develop a phenomenological theory of the three-dimensional KT transition by taking into account the effect of vortices. The point of this theory is that the cross-section of the system with respect to a plane perpendicular to the driving direction is essentially identical to the two-dimensional pure XY model.