Breaking Universality  in Non-Equilibrium Statistical Physics

Scaling is a key concept in statistical physics. It implies a universal form of scaling functions and of scaling exponents – for instance, in the theory of equilibrium critical phenomena and in the classical description of Ostwald ripening. For two examples, droplet growth in binary fluid mixtures and jamming of granular flows, I describe how this relation between scaling and universality is challenged. My findings are underpinned by dedicated experimental and numerical studies.