Dynamical Phase Transitions and Instabilities in Open Atomic Many-Body Systems

Journal Article · Fri Jul 02 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.105.015702· OSTI ID:21410463

Diehl, Sebastian; Micheli, Andrea; Zoller, Peter ^[1]; Tomadin, Andrea ^[2]; Fazio, Rosario ^[3]

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1. Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, A-6020 Innsbruck (Austria)
2. Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, A-6020 Innsbruck (Austria)
3. NEST, Scuola Normale Superiore and Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR, Pisa (Italy)

We discuss an open driven-dissipative many-body system, in which the competition of unitary Hamiltonian and dissipative Liouvillian dynamics leads to a nonequilibrium phase transition. It shares features of a quantum phase transition in that it is interaction driven, and of a classical phase transition, in that the ordered phase is continuously connected to a thermal state. We characterize the phase diagram and the critical behavior at the phase transition approached as a function of time. We find a novel fluctuation induced dynamical instability, which occurs at long wavelength as a consequence of a subtle dissipative renormalization effect on the speed of sound.

• OSTI ID: 21410463
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.015702; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ATOMS
HAMILTONIANS
INSTABILITY
MANY-BODY PROBLEM
PHASE DIAGRAMS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
RENORMALIZATION
SOUND WAVES
TIME DEPENDENCE
WAVELENGTHS
DIAGRAMS
INFORMATION
MATHEMATICAL OPERATORS
QUANTUM OPERATORS