Universality classes for asymptotic behavior of relaxation processes in systems with dynamical disorder: Dynamical generalizations of stretched exponential Available to Purchase

The asymptotic behavior of multichannel parallel relaxation processes for systems with dynamical disorder is investigated in the limit of a very large number of channels. An individual channel is characterized by a state vector x which, due to dynamical disorder, is a random function of time. A limit of the thermodynamic type in the x‐space is introduced for which both the volume available and the average number of channels tend to infinity, but the average volume density of channels remains constant. Scaling arguments combined with a stochastic renormalization group approach lead to the identification of two different types of universal behavior of the relaxation function corresponding to nonintermittent and intermittent fluctuations, respectively. For nonintermittent fluctuations a dynamical generalization of the static Huber’s relaxation equation is derived which depends only on the average functional density of channels, ρ[W(t′)]D[W(t′)], the channels being classified according to their different relaxation rates W=W(t′), which are random functions of time. For intermittent fluctuations a more complicated relaxation equation is derived which, in addition to the average density of channels, ρ[W(t′)]D[W(t′)], depends also on a positive fractal exponent H which characterizes the fluctuations of the density of channels. The general theory is applied for constructing dynamical analogs of the stretched exponential relaxation function. For nonintermittent fluctuations the type of relaxation is determined by the regression dynamics of the fluctuations of the relaxation rate. If the regression process is fast and described by an exponential attenuation function, then after an initial stretched exponential behavior the relaxation process slows down and it is not fully completed even in the limit of very large times. For self‐similar regression obeying a negative power law, the relaxation process is less sensitive to the influence of dynamical disorder. Both for small and large times the relaxation process is described by stretched exponentials with the same fractal exponent as for systems with static disorder. For large times the efficiency of the relaxation process is also slowed down by fluctuations. Similar patterns are found for intermittent fluctuations with the difference that for very large times and a slow regression process a crossover from a stretched exponential to a self‐similar algebraic relaxation function occurs. Some implications of the results for the study of relaxation processes in