Size-Independent Non-Equilibrium Fluctuations

Abstract

A local quantum phenomenon that gives rise to generic for all surface reactions macroscopic fluctuations is studied. The issue is viewed with respect to the necessary conditions for a long-term stable evolution of any natural and artificial system. It is shown that global coupling of the local fluctuations is necessary for providing a long-term stability of the system. A successful coupling mechanism is achieved on the grounds of new assumptions about the Hamiltonian response to certain perturbations. The coupling mechanism acts towards a global synchronisation, i.e. to a coherent response of the excited species to any further perturbation. It is proven that the synchronisation is a scale-free process that has universal properties, e.g. it is insensitive to the chemical identity of the reacting species and to the particularities of the surface reaction. Its hallmark is that the global adsorption rate exhibits permanent temporal variations whose amplitude is independent of the system size. The presence of these fluctuations fundamentally changes the temporal behavior of the system, namely it becomes pulse-like both on the quantum and the macro-level. The pulse-like behavior gives rise to a persistent continuous band at the quantum spectra whose major properties are: (I) it does not correspond to any real radiation; (ii) its presence is insensitive to the particularities of the system and the incident radiation; (iii) its shape and the infrared edge are typical for the -type noise. These properties give rise to its name: alias -type noise.