Dynamics of a nonequilibrium discontinuous quantum phase transition in a spinor Bose–Einstein condensate
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 similar...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Communications Physics |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-025-02048-7 |
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| Summary: | 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 behaviour in a first-order quantum phase transition can be understood from generic properties. We demonstrate the applicability of the Kibble–Zurek mechanism for this transition 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. |
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| ISSN: | 2399-3650 |