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+Beating critical slowness in symmetry-breaking potentials
+
+A fast method for simulating certain phase transitions has been extended to
+a new class of models.
+
+Nature slows way down near continuous phase transitions.  This process, known
+as critical slowing down, is characterized by large fluctuations that persist
+far longer than the microscopic motion of their constituents suggest.
+Computers attempting to simulate nature are slower than nature itself, and the
+result can render measurement of critical properties computationally
+intractable.  For models of nature with certain symmetries, algorithms exist
+that eliminate this slowness with clever and unnatural dynamics, transforming
+large clusters of microscopic constituents together in a way that resembles
+the natural fluctuations. Unfortunately, these methods cannot be directly
+applied in the presence of an external potential, like a magnetic field or
+lattice interaction, since these break the symmetry these algorithms depend on
+to operate.
+
+We've introduced a way of using cluster algorithms on systems in external
+potentials despite broken symmetry. By including the external potential as a
+dynamic element of the model that can itself be added to clusters and
+transformed along with the rest of the system, the original model's symmetries
+are restored.  Characteristic states of the modified model are equivalent to
+those of the original one provided the accumulated transformations to the
+external potential are accounted for and reversed when making measurements.
+The extension naturally preserves the efficiency of the original algorithms in
+the places where critical slowing down is worst.
+