Ripples in a string coupled to Glauber spins
  Each oscillator in a linear chain (a string) interacts with a local Ising spin in contact with a thermal bath. These spins evolve according to Glauber dynamics. Below a critical temperature, a rippled state in the string is accompanied by a nonzero spin polarization. The system is shown to form ripples in the string which, for slow spin relaxation, vibrates rapidly about quasi-stationary states described as snapshots of a coarse-grained stroboscopic map. For moderate observation times, ripples are observed irrespective of the final thermodynamically stable state (rippled or not). 
L L Bonilla, A Carpio, A Prados, R R Rosales
cond-mat.stat-mech cond-mat.mes-hall math-ph math.MP