Ageing properties of critical systems

In the past few years, systems with slow dynamics have attracted considerable theoretical and experimental interest. Ageing phenomena are observed during this everlasting non-equilibrium evolution. A simple instance of such a behaviour is provided by the dynamics that takes place when a system is quenched from its high-temperature phase to the critical point. The aim of this review is to summarize the various numerical and analytical results that have been recently obtained for this case. Particular emphasis is put on the field-theoretical methods that can be used to provide analytical predictions for the relevant dynamical quantities. Fluctuation-dissipation relations are discussed and in particular the concept of fluctuation-dissipation ratio (FDR) is reviewed, emphasizing its connection with the definition of a possible effective temperature. The renormalization-group approach to critical dynamics is summarized and the scaling forms of the time-dependent non-equilibrium correlation and response functions of a generic observable are discussed. From them, the universality of the associated FDR follows as an amplitude ratio. It is then possible to provide predictions for ageing quantities in a variety of different models. In particular, the results for models A, B and C dynamics of the O(N) Ginzburg-Landau Hamiltonian, and model A dynamics of the weakly dilute Ising magnet and of the phi 3 theory are reviewed and compared with the available numerical results and exact solutions. The effect of a planar surface on the ageing behaviour of model A dynamics is also addressed within the mean-field approximation.