Mean field approach to breakdown phenomena in disordered systems

Abstract

Breakdown phenomena can be understood as a phase transition that occur in athermal systems constituted of many interacting elements governed by the interplay between an external driving force and disorder. Representative examples are magnets driven by a magnetic field out of equilibrium and ruptures, in a stress driven fiber bundle. In this work we analyze critical behaviors of both cases within the mean field approach. The magnetic case has been compared with the Weiss model for a ferromagnet with no disorder at finite temperature. Finally, in the case of the fiber bundle model we show the existence of certain conditions for criticality to occur