Dynamics of a Nonequilibrium Discontinuous Quantum Phase Transition in a Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensate

Wheeler, Matthew, Salman, Hayder and Borgh, Magnus O. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4243-7051 (2023) Dynamics of a Nonequilibrium Discontinuous Quantum Phase Transition in a Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensate.

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Abstract

Symmetry-breaking quantum phase transitions lead to the production of topological defects or domain walls in a wide range of physical systems. In second-order transitions, these exhibit universal scaling laws described by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, but for first-order transitions a similarly universal approach is still lacking. Here we propose a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate as a testbed system where critical scaling behavior in a first-order quantum phase transition can be understood from generic properties. We generalize the Kibble-Zurek mechanism to determine the critical exponents for: (1) the onset of the decay of the metastable state on short times scales, and (2) the number of resulting phase-separated ferromagnetic domains at longer times, as a one-dimensional spin-1 condensate is ramped across a first-order quantum phase transition. The predictions are in excellent agreement with mean-field numerical simulations and provide a paradigm for studying the decay of metastable states in experimentally accessible systems.

Item Type: Article
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Engineering, Mathematics and Physics
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Photonics and Quantum Science
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Fluids & Structures
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Quantum Matter
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 07 Jan 2025 01:55
Last Modified: 07 Jan 2025 01:55
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98101
DOI:

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