Exact pre-transition effects in kinetically constrained circuits: dynamical fluctuations in the Floquet-East model

We study the dynamics of a classical circuit corresponding to a discrete-time kinetically constrained East model. We show that this classical “Floquet-East” model displays pre-transition behaviour which is a dynamical equivalent of the hydrophobic effect in water. For the deterministic version of the model we prove exactly: (i) a change in scaling with size in the probability of inactive space-time regions (akin to the “energy-entropy” crossover of the solvation free energy in water), (ii) a first-order phase transition in the dynamical large deviations, (iii) the existence of the optimal geometry for local phase separation to accommodate space-time solutes, and (iv) a dynamical analog of “hydrophobic collapse”.