Transience and nonergodicity in the model of many sokobans and boxes on a line

by Prof. Deepak Dhar (ICTS, Bengaluru)

Tuesday 27 Oct 2026, 16:00 → 17:00 Asia/Kolkata

AG69 and on Zoom

I will discuss the concept of non-equilibrium entropy in a toy model. Here the system has many transient configurations, and shows a strong breakdown of ergodicity. The configuration space breaks into many subsets that you can not go from one subset to another. The model is inspired by a video game called the Sokoban. It has many random walkers and boxes on a line. The walkers ( called sokobans) move diffusively, and can push single boxes, but cannot be at the same site as another sokoban or a box. I will discuss the phase space breakup, characterize the transient and recurrent configurations in this model, and calculate the non-equilibrium entropy for this model, using this breakup.