Universality of phase transition dynamics: topological defects from symmetry breaking

Technical Report · Thu Feb 13 04:00:00 EST 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1120720· OSTI ID:1120720

Zurek, Wojciech H. ^[1]; Del Campo, Adolfo ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

In the course of a non-equilibrium continuous phase transition, the dynamics ceases to be adiabatic in the vicinity of the critical point as a result of the critical slowing down (the divergence of the relaxation time in the neighborhood of the critical point). This enforces a local choice of the broken symmetry and can lead to the formation of topological defects. The Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) was developed to describe the associated nonequilibrium dynamics and to estimate the density of defects as a function of the quench rate through the transition. During recent years, several new experiments investigating formation of defects in phase transitions induced by a quench both in classical and quantum mechanical systems were carried out. At the same time, some established results were called into question. We review and analyze the Kibble-Zurek mechanism focusing in particular on this surge of activity, and suggest possible directions for further progress.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1120720
• Report Number(s): LA-UR--14-20940
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
KIBBLE-ZUREK MECHANISM
PHASE TRANSITIONS
SPONTANEOUS SYMMETRY BREAKING
TOPOLOGICAL DEFECTS