Phase transition in space: how far does a symmetry bend before it breaks?

DOI10.1098/RSTA.2008.0069MaRDI QIDQ5504037zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Wojciech Hubert Zurek, Uwe Dorner

Publication date 21 January 2009

Published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0807.3516

zbMATH Keywords

avoided level crossingLandau-Zener tunnellingphase transitionsquantum phase transitionstopological excitations

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum field theory; related classical field theories (81T99) Dynamic and nonequilibrium phase transitions (general) in statistical mechanics (82C26) Statistical mechanics of superconductors (82D55)

Abstract: We extend the theory of symmetry breaking dynamics in non-equilibrium second order phase transitions known as the Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) to transitions where the change of phase occurs not in time, but in space. This can be due to a time-independent spatial variation of a field that imposes a phase with one symmetry to the left of where it attains critical value, while allowing spontaneous symmetry breaking to the right of that critical borderline. Topological defects need not form in such a situation. We show, however, that the size, in space, of the ``scar over which the order parameter adjusts as it ``bends interpolating between the phases with different symmetry follows from a KZM - like approach. As we illustrate on the example of a transverse quantum Ising model, in quantum phase transitions this spatial scale -- the size of the scar -- is directly reflected in the energy spectrum of the system: In particular, it determines the size of the energy gap.

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• Coherent and dissipative dynamics at quantum phase transitions
• Defect production in quench from a current-carrying non-equilibrium state
• Spatial Kibble-Zurek mechanism through susceptibilities: the inhomogeneous quantum Ising model case
• BOGOLIUBOV'S VISION: QUASIAVERAGES AND BROKEN SYMMETRY TO QUANTUM PROTECTORATE AND EMERGENCE
• Dynamics of longitudinal magnetization in transverse-field quantum Ising model: from symmetry-breaking gap to Kibble-Zurek mechanism

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