skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Sonic horizons and causality in phase transition dynamics

Journal Article · · Physical Review. B

A system gradually driven through a symmetry-breaking phase transition is subject to the Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM). As a consequence of the critical slowing down, its state cannot follow local equilibrium, and its evolution becomes nonadiabatic near the critical point. In the simplest approximation, that stage can be regarded as an “impulse” where the state of the system remains unchanged. It leads to the correct KZM scaling laws. However, such a “freeze-out” might suggest that the coherence length of the nascent order parameter remains unchanged as the critical region is traversed. By contrast, the original causality-based discussion emphasized the role of the sonic horizon: Domains of the broken symmetry phase can expand with a velocity limited by the speed of the relevant sound. This effect was demonstrated in the quantum Ising chain where the dynamical exponent z = 1 and quasiparticles excited by the transition have a fixed speed of sound. To elucidate the role of the sonic horizon, in this paper we study two systems with z > 1 where the speed of sound is no longer fixed, and the fastest excited quasiparticles set the size of the sonic horizon. Their effective speed decays with increasing transition time. In the extreme case, the dynamical exponent z can diverge such as in the Griffiths region of the random Ising chain where the localization of excited quasiparticles freezes the growth of the correlation range when the critical region is traversed. Of particular interest is an example with z < 1 , the long-range extended Ising chain, where there is no upper limit to the velocity of excited quasiparticles with small momenta. Initially, the power-law tail of the correlation function grows adiabatically, but in the nonadiabatic stage it lags behind the adiabatic evolution.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
1819145
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1615678
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-19-30546; TRN: US2214068
Journal Information:
Physical Review. B, Vol. 101, Issue 14; ISSN 2469-9950
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 19 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (116)

Emergence of coherence via transverse condensation in a uniform quasi-two-dimensional Bose gas journal January 2015
Dynamics of a Quantum Phase Transition: Exact Solution of the Quantum Ising Model journal December 2005
Spread of Correlations in Long-Range Interacting Quantum Systems journal November 2013
Dynamics of the Bose-Hubbard model: Transition from a Mott insulator to a superfluid journal February 2007
Kibble-Zurek mechanism in a quenched ferromagnetic Bose-Einstein condensate journal October 2007
The Cosmological Kibble Mechanism in the Laboratory: String Formation in Liquid Crystals journal February 1994
Colloquium : Nonequilibrium dynamics of closed interacting quantum systems journal August 2011
Space and time renormalization in phase transition dynamics journal February 2016
Universal Dynamics of Inhomogeneous Quantum Phase Transitions: Suppressing Defect Formation journal March 2019
Realization of inverse Kibble–Zurek scenario with trapped Bose gases journal July 2015
Entropy of entanglement and correlations induced by a quench: Dynamics of a quantum phase transition in the quantum Ising model journal May 2007
Exploring Symmetry Breaking at the Dicke Quantum Phase Transition journal September 2011
Direct Observation of the Proliferation of Ferroelectric Loop Domains and Vortex-Antivortex Pairs journal April 2012
Phase-transition dynamics in the lab and the universe journal September 2007
Critical phenomena and Kibble–Zurek scaling in the long-range quantum Ising chain journal March 2017
Spontaneous vortices in the formation of Bose–Einstein condensates journal October 2008
Defect Production in Nonlinear Quench across a Quantum Critical Point journal July 2008
Quenching dynamics of a quantum X Y spin- 1 2 chain in a transverse field journal November 2007
Nonequilibrium Dynamic Critical Scaling of the Quantum Ising Chain journal July 2012
Observation of Solitonic Vortices in Bose-Einstein Condensates journal August 2014
Finite-temperature and dynamical properties of the random transverse-field Ising spin chain journal November 1997
Adiabatic dynamics of an inhomogeneous quantum phase transition: the case of a z >1 dynamical exponent journal October 2010
Vortex String Formation in a 3D U(1) Temperature Quench journal April 1999
Universal space-time scaling symmetry in the dynamics of bosons across a quantum phase transition journal November 2016
Dynamics of a quantum phase transition with decoherence: Quantum Ising chain in a static spin environment journal March 2009
Universal adiabatic dynamics in the vicinity of a quantum critical point journal October 2005
Cosmological experiments in superfluid helium? journal October 1985
Vortex Formation in Two Dimensions: When Symmetry Breaks, How Big Are the Pieces? journal June 1998
Topological defects as relics of emergent continuous symmetry and Higgs condensation of disorder in ferroelectrics journal November 2014
Nonlinear quenches of power-law confining traps in quantum critical systems journal February 2011
Time Dependence of Correlation Functions Following a Quantum Quench journal April 2006
Two-Dimensional Ising Model as a Soluble Problem of Many Fermions journal July 1964
Breakdown of the adiabatic limit in low-dimensional gapless systems journal May 2008
Dynamics of a quantum phase transition and relaxation to a steady state journal September 2010
Density of Kinks after a Quench: When Symmetry Breaks, How Big are the Pieces? journal March 1997
Griffiths-McCoy Singularities in Random Quantum Spin Chains: Exact Results through Renormalization journal February 2001
Statistical Mechanics of the X Y Model. II. Spin-Correlation Functions journal February 1971
Spontaneous symmetry breaking in a quenched ferromagnetic spinor Bose–Einstein condensate journal September 2006
Probing the Bose glass–superfluid transition using quantum quenches of disorder journal March 2016
The Simplest Quantum Model Supporting the Kibble-Zurek Mechanism of Topological Defect Production: Landau-Zener Transitions from a New Perspective journal July 2005
Topology of cosmic domains and strings journal August 1976
Spontaneous fluxoid formation in superconducting loops journal November 2009
Long-range Ising and Kitaev models: phases, correlations and edge modes journal December 2015
Vortex formation in neutron-irradiated superfluid 3He as an analogue of cosmological defect formation journal July 1996
Random transverse field Ising spin chains journal July 1992
Fast Preparation of Critical Ground States Using Superluminal Fronts journal May 2018
Symmetry Breaking with a Slant: Topological Defects after an Inhomogeneous Quench journal June 1999
Universal far-from-equilibrium dynamics of a holographic superconductor journal June 2015
Ginzburg regime and its effects on topological defect formation journal August 2000
Some implications of a cosmological phase transition journal December 1980
Critical dynamics of decoherence journal June 2011
Critical Quench Dynamics in Confined Systems journal May 2010
Adiabatic quantum dynamics of a random Ising chain across its quantum critical point journal October 2007
Observation of Magnetic Flux Generated Spontaneously During a Rapid Quench of Superconducting Films journal November 2003
Dynamics after a sweep through a quantum critical point journal February 2010
Theory of a Two-Dimensional Ising Model with Random Impurities. I. Thermodynamics journal December 1968
Activating critical exponent spectra with a slow drive journal February 2020
Dynamical Critical Scaling of Long-Range Interacting Quantum Magnets journal December 2018
Quenches and dynamical phase transitions in a nonintegrable quantum Ising model journal September 2015
Kibble-Zurek problem: Universality and the scaling limit journal August 2012
Kitaev Chains with Long-Range Pairing journal October 2014
Cosmological experiments in condensed matter systems journal November 1996
Trapping of Topological-Structural Defects in Coulomb Crystals journal March 2013
Theory of phase-ordering kinetics journal March 2002
Inhomogeneous quasi-adiabatic driving of quantum critical dynamics in weakly disordered spin chains journal December 2016
Emergence of coherence and the dynamics of quantum phase transitions journal March 2015
Universal dynamical scaling of long-range topological superconductors journal November 2019
Topological relics of symmetry breaking: winding numbers and scaling tilts from random vortex–antivortex pairs journal September 2013
Adiabatic dynamics of quasiperiodic transverse Ising model journal February 2020
Breakdown of Quasilocality in Long-Range Quantum Lattice Models journal December 2013
System size scaling of topological defect creation in a second-order dynamical quantum phase transition journal September 2010
Dynamics of an inhomogeneous quantum phase transition journal May 2010
Defect Formation beyond Kibble-Zurek Mechanism and Holography journal May 2015
Universality of phase transition dynamics: Topological defects from symmetry breaking journal March 2014
Zurek-Kibble Domain Structures: The Dynamics of Spontaneous Vortex Formation in Annular Josephson Tunnel Junctions journal August 2002
Dynamics of a quantum phase transition in the random Ising model: Logarithmic dependence of the defect density on the transition rate journal August 2006
Adiabatic-impulse approximation for avoided level crossings: From phase-transition dynamics to Landau-Zener evolutions and back again journal June 2006
Exact Results for Quench Dynamics and Defect Production in a Two-Dimensional Model journal February 2008
Quantum Kibble-Zurek physics in long-range transverse-field Ising models journal September 2019
Sweeping from the Superfluid to the Mott Phase in the Bose-Hubbard Model journal November 2006
Quench dynamics near a quantum critical point journal January 2010
Quantum Kibble-Zurek Mechanism in a Spin-1 Bose-Einstein Condensate journal April 2016
Evidence for Long-Range Correlations within Arrays of Spontaneously Created Magnetic Vortices in a Nb Thin-Film Superconductor journal June 2010
Scaling Behavior and Beyond Equilibrium in the Hexagonal Manganites journal December 2012
Causality and non-equilibrium second-order phase transitions in inhomogeneous systems journal September 2013
Winding up superfluid in a torus via Bose Einstein condensation journal April 2012
Spreading of correlations in exactly solvable quantum models with long-range interactions in arbitrary dimensions journal September 2016
Causality in Condensates: Gray Solitons as Relics of BEC Formation journal March 2009
Quantum Quench of an Atomic Mott Insulator journal June 2011
Kibble–Zurek mechanism in colloidal monolayers journal April 2015
Observation of Spontaneous Flux Generation in a Multi-Josephson-Junction Loop journal May 2000
The inhomogeneous Kibble–Zurek mechanism: vortex nucleation during Bose–Einstein condensation journal August 2011
Theory of dynamic critical phenomena journal July 1977
Dynamics of a Quantum Phase Transition journal September 2005
Critical dynamics of spontaneous symmetry breaking in a homogeneous Bose gas journal January 2015
Solitons as the Early Stage of Quasicondensate Formation during Evaporative Cooling journal March 2011
Spontaneous nucleation of structural defects in inhomogeneous ion chains journal November 2010
O ( N ) symmetry-breaking quantum quench: Topological defects versus quasiparticles journal January 2010
Quantum Kibble–Zurek mechanism and critical dynamics on a programmable Rydberg simulator journal April 2019
Critical behavior of random transverse-field Ising spin chains journal March 1995
Topological defect formation and spontaneous symmetry breaking in ion Coulomb crystals journal August 2013
Observation of the Kibble–Zurek scaling law for defect formation in ion crystals journal August 2013
Winding Up of the Wave-Function Phase by an Insulator-to-Superfluid Transition in a Ring of Coupled Bose-Einstein Condensates journal September 2008
Probing the role of long-range interactions in the dynamics of a long-range Kitaev chain journal September 2017
Structural Defects in Ion Chains by Quenching the External Potential: The Inhomogeneous Kibble-Zurek Mechanism journal August 2010
Dynamical equilibration across a quenched phase transition in a trapped quantum gas journal June 2018
Nonanalytic Behavior Above the Critical Point in a Random Ising Ferromagnet journal July 1969
Laboratory simulation of cosmic string formation in the early Universe using superfluid 3He journal July 1996
Cosmology in the Laboratory: Defect Dynamics in Liquid Crystals journal March 1991
Vortex Quantum Creation and Winding Number Scaling in a Quenched Spinor Bose Gas journal September 2007
Theory of a Two-Dimensional Ising Model with Random Impurities. IV. Generalizations journal October 1970
Kibble-Zurek mechanism with a single particle: Dynamics of the localization-delocalization transition in the Aubry-André model journal March 2019
Soliton Creation During a Bose-Einstein Condensation journal April 2010
Defects in Quantum Computers journal March 2018
Dynamical criticality and domain-wall coupling in long-range Hamiltonians journal July 2019
Engineering non-equilibrium quantum phase transitions via causally gapped Hamiltonians journal October 2018

Cited By (1)

Kibble-Zurek Dynamics in a Trapped Ultracold Bose Gas text January 2020