When a system crosses a second-order phase transition on a finite timescale, spontaneous symmetry breaking can cause the development of domains with independent order parameters, which then grow and approach each other creating boundary defects. This is known as Kibble-Zurek mechanism. Originally introduced in cosmology, it applies both to classical and quantum phase transitions, in a wide variety of physical systems. Here we report on the spontaneous creation of solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates via the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. We measure the power-law dependence of defects number with the quench time, and provide a check of the Kibble-Zurek scaling with the sonic horizon. These results provide a promising test bed for the determination of critical exponents in Bose-Einstein condensates.
Near a continuous phase transition, systems with different microscopic origins display universal dynamics if their underlying symmetries are compatible. In a thermally quenched system, the Kibble-Zurek mechanism for the creation of topological defects unveils this universality through a characteristic power-law exponent, which captures the dependence of the defect density on the quench rate. Here, we report the observation of the Kibble-Zurek universality in a strongly interacting Fermi superfluid. As the system's microscopic description is tuned from bosonic to fermionic, the quench formation…
We show that there exists the inverse Kibble-Zurek scenario, when we start with an equilibrium system with broken symmetry and, by imposing perturbations, transform it to a strongly nonequilibrium symmetric state through the sequence of states with spontaneously arising topological defects. We demonstrate the inverse Kibble-Zurek scenario both experimentally, by perturbing the Bose-Einstein condensate of trapped $^{87}$Rb atoms, and also by accomplishing numerical simulations for the same setup as in the experiment, the experimental and numerical results being in good agreement with each other…
Atomic Bose-Einstein condensates confined to a dual-ring trap support Josephson vortices as topologically stable defects in the relative phase. We propose a test of the scaling laws for defect formation by quenching a Bose gas to degeneracy in this geometry. Stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii simulations reveal a -1/4 power-law scaling of defect number with quench time for fast quenches, consistent with the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. Slow quenches show stronger quench-time dependence that is explained by the stability properties of Josephson vortices, revealing the boundary of the Kibble-Zurek regime. I…
Spontaneous spin vortex formation in the magnetic phase transition of a trapped spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate is investigated using mean-field theory. In a harmonic trapping potential, an inhomogeneous atomic density leads to spatial variations of the critical point, magnetization time scale, and spin correlation length. The Kibble-Zurek phenomena are shown to emerge even in such inhomogeneous systems, when the quench of the quadratic Zeeman energy is fast enough. For slow quench, the magnetized region gradually expands from the center of the trap pushing out spin vortices, which hinders the…
We apply the theory of inhomogeneous Kibble-Zurek mechanism to understand quench dynamics from the Mott insulator to the superfluid in a cold Bose gases confined in both a two-dimensional optical lattice and a harmonic trap. The local quench time and the freeze-out region associated with the nonadiabatic transition take a nontrivial positional dependence due to the Mott-lobe structure of the ground state phase diagram of the Bose-Hubbard model. We demonstrate that the quench dynamics through the time-dependent Gutzwiller simulations, revealing inhomogeneous properties of the growth of the supe…
Quantum critical behavior of many-body phase transitions is one of the most fascinating yet challenging questions in quantum physics. Here, we improved the band-mapping method to investigate the quantum phase transition from superfluid to Mott insulators, and we observed the critical behaviors of quantum phase transitions in both dynamical steady-state-relaxation region and phase-oscillation region. Based on various observables, two different values for the same quantum critical parameter are observed. This result is beyond a universal-scaling-law description of quantum phase transitions known…
Universal dynamics of spontaneous symmetry breaking is central to understanding the universal behavior of spontaneous defect formation in various system from the early universe, condensed-matter systems to ultracold atomic systems. We explore the universal real-time dynamics in an array of coupled binary atomic Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices, which undergo a spontaneous symmetry breaking from the symmetric Rabi oscillation to the broken-symmetry self-trapping. In addition to Goldstone modes, there exist gapped Higgs mode whose excitation gap vanishes at the critical point. In th…
Out-of-equilibrium phenomena is a subject of considerable interest in many fields of physics. Ultracold quantum gases, which are extremely clean, well-isolated and highly controllable systems, offer ideal platforms to investigate this topic. The recent progress in tailoring trapping potentials now allows the experimental production of homogeneous samples in custom geometries, which is a key advance for studies of the emergence of coherence in interacting quantum systems. Here we review recent experiments in which temperature quenches have been performed across the Bose-Einstein condensation (B…
We consider a zigzag chain of coupled micropillar cavities, taking into account the polarization of polariton states. We show that the TE-TM splitting of photonic cavity modes yields topologically protected polariton edge states. During the strongly non-adiabatic process of polariton condensation, the Kibble-Zurek mechanism leads to a random choice of polarization, equivalent to dimerization of polymer chains. We show that dark-bright solitons appear as domain walls between polarization domains, analogous to the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger solitons in polymers. The soliton density scales as a power l…
The Kibble-Zurek mechanism provides a unified theory to describe the universal scaling laws in the dynamics when a system is driven through a second-order quantum phase transition. However, for first-order quantum phase transitions, the Kibble-Zurek mechanism is usually not applicable. Here, we experimentally demonstrate and theoretically analyze a power-law scaling in the dynamics of a spin-1 condensate across a first-order quantum phase transition when a system is slowly driven from a polar phase to an antiferromagnetic phase. We show that this power-law scaling can be described by a general…
We observe power-law scaling of the temporal onset of excitations with quench speed in the neighborhood of the quantum phase transition between the polar and broken-axisymmetry phases in a small spin-1 ferromagnetic Bose-Einstein condensate. As the system is driven through the quantum critical point by tuning the Hamiltonian, the vanishing energy gap between the ground state and first excited state causes the reaction time scale of the system to diverge, preventing it from adiabatically following the ground state. We measure the temporal evolution of the spin populations for different quench s…
We consider a phase transition from antiferromagnetic to phase separated ground state in a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate of ultracold atoms. We demonstrate the occurrence of two scaling laws, for the number of spin fluctuations just after the phase transition, and for the number of spin domains in the final, stable configuration. Only the first scaling can be explained by the standard Kibble-Żurek mechanism. We explain the occurrence of two scaling laws by a model including post-selection of spin domains due to the conservation of condensate magnetization.
The dynamical evolution of an inhomogeneous ultracold atomic gas quenched at different controllable rates through the Bose-Einstein condensation phase transition is studied numerically in the premise of a recent experiment in an anisotropic harmonic trap. Our findings based on the stochastic (projected) Gross-Pitaevskii equation are shown to be consistent at early times with the predictions of the homogeneous Kibble-Zurek mechanism. This is demonstrated by collapsing the early dynamical evolution of densities, spectral functions and correlation lengths for different quench rates, based on an a…
We drive the one-dimensional quantum Ising chain in the transverse field from the paramagnetic phase to the critical point and study its free evolution there. We analyze excitation of such a system at the critical point and dynamics of its transverse magnetization and Loschmidt echo during free evolution. We discuss how the system size and quench-induced scaling relations from the Kibble-Zurek theory of non-equilibrium phase transitions are encoded in quasi-periodic time evolution of the transverse magnetization and Loschmidt echo.
As a test of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) of defect formation, we simulate the Bose-Einstein condensation transition in a toroidally confined Bose gas using the stochastic projected Gross-Pitaevskii equation (SPGPE), with and without the energy-damping reservoir interaction. Energy-damping alters the scaling of the winding number distribution with the quench time - a departure from the universal KZM theory that relies on equilibrium critical exponents. Numerical values are obtained for the correlation-length critical exponent $ν$ and the dynamical critical exponent $z$ for each variant of …
We study how universal properties of quantum quenches across critical points are modified by a weak coupling to thermal dissipation, focusing on the paradigmatic case of the transverse field Ising model. Beyond the standard quench-induced Kibble-Zurek defect production in the absence of the bath, the bath contributes extra thermal defects. We show that spatial correlations in the noise produced by the bath can play a crucial role: one obtains quantitatively different scaling regimes depending on whether the correlation length of the noise is smaller or larger than the Kibble-Zurek length assoc…
We study the formation of topological defects (quantum vortices) during the formation of a 2D polariton condensate at the $Γ$ point of a honeycomb lattice via the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. The lattice modifies the single-particle dispersion. The typical interaction energies at the quench time correspond to the linear part of the dispersion. The resulting scaling exponent for the density of topological defects is numerically found as $0.95\pm0.05$. This value differs from the one expected for 2D massive particles (1/2), but is indeed compatible with the one expected for a linear dispersion. We mo…
Geometric quantum speed limits quantify the trade-off between the rate with which quantum states can change and the resources that are expended during the evolution. Counterdiabatic driving is a unique tool from shortcuts to adiabaticity to speed up quantum dynamics while completely suppressing nonequilibrium excitations. We show that the quantum speed limit for counterdiabatically driven systems undergoing quantum phase transitions fully encodes the Kibble-Zurek mechanism by correctly predicting the transition from adiabatic to impulse regimes. Our findings are demonstrated for three scenario…
The Kibble-Zurek mechanism constitutes one of the most fascinating and universal phenomena in the physics of critical systems. It describes the formation of domains and the spontaneous nucleation of topological defects when a system is driven across a phase transition exhibiting spontaneous symmetry breaking. While a characteristic dependence of the defect density on the speed at which the transition is crossed was observed in a vast range of equilibrium condensed matter systems, its extension to intrinsically driven-dissipative systems is a matter of ongoing research. In this work we numerica…
Non-Hermitian descriptions of quantum matter have seen impressive progress recently, with major advances in understanding central aspects such as their topological properties or the physics of exceptional points, the non-Hermitian counterpart of critical points. Here, we use single-photon interferometry to reconstruct the non-Hermitian Kibble-Zurek mechanism and its distinct scaling behavior for exceptional points, by simulating the defect production upon performing slow parameter ramps. Importantly, we are able to realise also higher-order exceptional points, providing experimental access to …
The Kibble-Zurek mechanism is applied to the spontaneous formation of vortices in a harmonically trapped thermal gas following a temperature quench through the critical value for Bose-Einstein condensation. While in the homogeneous scenario vortex nucleation is always expected, we show that it can be completely suppressed in the presence of the confinement potential, whenever the speed of the spatial front undergoing condensation is lower than a threshold velocity. Otherwise, the interplay between the geometry and causality leads to different scaling laws for the density of vortices as a funct…
We study the slow crossing of non-equilibrium quantum phase transitions in periodically-driven systems. We explicitly consider a spin chain with a uniform time-dependent magnetic field and focus on the Floquet state that is adiabatically connected to the ground state of the static model. We find that this {\it Floquet ground state} undergoes a series of quantum phase transitions characterized by a non-trivial topology. To dinamically probe these transitions, we propose to start with a large driving frequency and slowly decrease it as a function of time. Combining analytical and numerical metho…
We propose that Kibble-Zurek scaling can be studied in optical lattices by creating geometries that support, Dirac, Semi-Dirac and Quadratic Band Crossings. On a Honeycomb lattice with fermions, as a staggered on-site potential is varied through zero, the system crosses the gapless Dirac points, and we show that the density of defects created scales as $1/τ$, where $τ$ is the inverse rate of change of the potential, in agreement with the Kibble-Zurek relation. We generalize the result for a passage through a semi-Dirac point in $d$ dimensions, in which spectrum is linear in $m$ parallel direct…
We investigate the quench dynamics of an open quantum system involving a quantum phase transition. In the isolated case, the quench dynamics involving the phase transition exhibits a number of scaling relations with the quench rate as predicted by the celebrated Kibble-Zurek mechanism. In contact with an environment however, these scaling laws breakdown and one may observe an anti-Kibble-Zurek behavior: slower ramps lead to less adiabatic dynamics, increasing thus non-adiabatic effects with the quench time. In contrast to previous works, we show here that such anti-Kibble-Zurek scaling can acq…
We investigate the dynamics and outcome of a quantum phase transition from an antiferromagnetic to phase separated ground state in a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate of ultracold atoms. We explicitly demonstrate double universality in dynamics within experiments with various quench time. Furthermore, we show that spin domains created in the nonequilibrium transition constitute a set of mutually incoherent quasicondensates. The quasicondensates appear to be positioned in a semi-regular fashion, which is a result of the conservation of local magnetization during the post-selection dynamics.
Quantum phase transitions (QPTs) involve transformations between different states of matter that are driven by quantum fluctuations. These fluctuations play a dominant role in the quantum critical region surrounding the transition point, where the dynamics are governed by the universal properties associated with the QPT. While time-dependent phenomena associated with classical, thermally driven phase transitions have been extensively studied in systems ranging from the early universe to Bose Einstein Condensates, understanding critical real-time dynamics in isolated, non-equilibrium quantum sy…
We show that the symmetry-breaking gap of the quantum Ising model in the transverse field can be extracted from free evolution of the longitudinal magnetization taking place after a gradual quench of the magnetic field. We perform for this purpose numerical simulations of the Ising chains with either periodic or open boundaries. We also study the condition for adiabaticity of evolution of the longitudinal magnetization finding excellent agreement between our simulations and the prediction based on the Kibble-Zurek theory of non-equilibrium phase transitions. Our results should be relevant for …
We study the driven dynamics across the critical points of the Yang-Lee edge singularities (YLESes) in a finite-size quantum Ising chain with an imaginary symmetry-breaking field. In contrast to the conventional classical or quantum phase transitions, these phase transitions are induced by tuning the strength of the dissipation in a non-Hermitian system and can occur even at finite size. For conventional phase transitions, universal behaviors in driven dynamics across critical points are usually described by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, which states that the scaling in dynamics is dictated by t…
We study the dynamic after a smooth quench across a continuous transition from the disordered phase to the ordered phase. Based on scaling ideas, linear response and the spectrum of unstable modes, we develop a theoretical framework, valid for any second order phase transition, for the early-time evolution of the condensate in the broken phase. Our analysis unveils a novel period of non-adiabatic evolution after the system passes through the phase transition, where a parametrically large amount of coarsening occurs before a well-defined condensate forms. Our formalism predicts a rate of defect…
The conventional Kibble-Zurek scaling describes the scaling behavior in the driven dynamics across a single critical region. In this paper, we study the driven dynamics across an overlapping critical region, in which a critical region (Region-A) is overlaid by another critical region (Region-B). We develop a hybridized Kibble-Zurek scaling (HKZS) to characterize the scaling behavior in the driven process. According to the HKZS, the driven dynamics in the overlapping region can be described by the critical theories for both Region-A and Region-B simultaneously. This results in a constraint on t…
Exceptional points (EPs) are ubiquitous in non-hermitian systems, and represent the complex counterpart of critical points. By driving a system through a critical point at finite rate induces defects, described by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, which finds applications in diverse fields of physics. Here we generalize this to a ramp across an EP. We find that adiabatic time evolution brings the system into an eigenstate of the final non-hermitian Hamiltonian and demonstrate that for a variety of drives through an EP, the defect density scales as $τ^{-(d+z)ν/(zν+1)}$ in terms of the usual critical …
We study the dynamics of a transverse-field XY chain driven across quantum critical points by noisy control fields. We characterize the defect density as a function of the quench time and the noise strength, and demonstrate that the defect productions for three quench protocols with different scaling exponents exhibit the anti-Kibble-Zurek behavior, whereby slower driving results in more defects. The protocols are quenching through the boundary line between paramagnetic and ferromagnetic phases, quenching across the isolated multicritical point and along the gapless line, respectively. We also…
Kibble-Zurek theory (KZ) stands out as the most robust theory of defect generation in the dynamics of phase transitions. KZ utilizes the structure of equilibrium states away from the transition point to estimate the excitations due to the transition using adiabatic and impulse approximations. Here we show, the actual nonequilibrium dynamics lead to a qualitatively different scenario from KZ, as far correlations between the defects (rather than their densities) are concerned. For a quantum Ising chain, we show, this gives rise to a Gaussian spatial decay in the domain wall (kinks) correlations,…
The conventional Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) describes the driven critical dynamics in the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson (LGW) spontaneous symmetry-breaking phase transitions. However, whether the KZM is still applicable in the deconfined quantum criticality, which is beyond the LGW paradigm, has not been explored. In this paper, we study the driven critical dynamics near a one-dimensional incarnation of deconfined quantum critical point between a ferromagnetic (FM) phase and a valance-bond-solid (VBS) phase. By investigating the dependence of the density of the topological defects on the driving ra…
Kibble-Zurek Scaling and Spatial Statistics in Quenched Binary Bose Superfluids
Indian Institute of Technology Mandi（印度理工学院曼迪分校）；University of Luxembourg（卢森堡大学）；Donostia International Physics Center（多诺斯蒂亚国际物理中心）；Christ University（基督大学）
We propose an interferometry within the framework of quantum Kibble-Zurek mechanism by exemplifying two prototypical quench protocols, namely the round-trip and quarter-turn ones, on the transverse Ising and quantum $XY$ chains. Each protocol contains two linear ramps that drive the system across quantum critical point twice. The two linear ramps arouse two respective nonadiabatic critical dynamics that are well described by the quantum Kibble-Zurek mechanism. However, in combination, the two critical dynamics can interfere with each other deeply. As an effect of the interference, the dynamica…
Kibble and Zurek proposed that rapid symmetry breaking transitions in the hot, early universe could result in causally disconnected topological defects such as cosmic strings. This type of first order transition has analogues in certain second order transitions present in condensed matter such as liquid crystals, super fluids, and charge density waves in terms of flux tubes or vortices. Recently, we discovered that Rhodopseudomonas acidophilus photosynthetic light harvesting complex might have different types of coherent ground and excited states, suggesting that there are two different symmet…
We describe a scheme for finding quantum critical points based on studies of a non-equilibrium susceptibility during finite-rate quenches taking the system from one phase to another. We assume that two such quenches are performed in opposite directions, and argue that they lead to formation of peaks of a non-equilibrium susceptibility on opposite sides of a critical point. Its position is then narrowed to the interval marked off by these values of the parameter driving the transition, at which the peaks are observed. Universal scaling with the quench time of precision of such an estimation is …
We study gauge and gravity backreaction in a holographic model of quantum quench across a superfluid critical transition. The model involves a complex scalar field coupled to a gauge and gravity field in the bulk. In earlier work (arXiv:1211.1776) the scalar field had a strong self-coupling, in which case the backreaction on both the metric and the gauge field can be ignored. In this approximation, it was shown that when a time dependent source for the order parameter drives the system across the critical point at a rate slow compared to the initial gap, the dynamics in the critical region is …
We study the dynamics of the relative phase of a bilayer of two-dimensional superfluids after the two superfluids have been decoupled. We find that on short time scales the relative phase shows "light cone" like dynamics and creates a metastable superfluid state, which can be supercritical. We also demonstrate similar light cone dynamics for the transverse field Ising model. On longer time scales the supercritical state relaxes to a disordered state due to dynamical vortex unbinding. This scenario of dynamically suppressed vortex proliferation constitutes a reverse-Kibble-Zurek effect. We stud…
In this paper, we study the dynamics of the Bose-Hubbard model by using time-dependent Gutzwiller methods. In particular, we vary the parameters in the Hamiltonian as a function of time, and investigate the temporal behavior of the system from the Mott insulator to the superfluid (SF) crossing a second-order phase transition. We first solve a time-dependent Schrödinger equation for the experimental setup recently done by Braun et.al. [Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 112, 3641 (2015)] and show that the numerical and experimental results are in fairly good agreement. However, these results disagree with t…
