Causality and non-equilibrium second-order phase transitions in inhomogeneous systems

When a second-order phase transition is crossed at fine rate, the evolution of the system stops being adiabatic as a result of the critical slowing down in the neighborhood of the critical point. In systems with a topologically nontrivial vacuum manifold, disparate local choices of the ground state lead to the formation of topological defects. The universality class of the transition imprints a signature on the resulting density of topological defects: It obeys a power law in the quench rate, with an exponent dictated by a combination of the critical exponents of the transition. In inhomogeneous systems the situation is more complicated, as the spontaneous symmetry breaking competes with bias caused by the influence of the nearby regions that already chose the new vacuum. As a result, the choice of the broken symmetry vacuum may be inherited from the neighboring regions that have already entered the new phase. This competition between the inherited and spontaneous symmetry breaking enhances the role of causality, as the defect formation is restricted to a fraction of the system where the front velocity surpasses the relevant sound velocity and phase transition remains effectively homogeneous. As a consequence, the overall number of topological defects can be substantially suppressed. When the fraction of the system is small, the resulting total number of defects is still given by a power law related to the universality class of the transition, but exhibits a more pronounced dependence on the quench rate. This enhanced dependence complicates the analysis but may also facilitate experimental test of defect formation theories.

Testing quantum adiabaticity with quench echo

Adiabaticity of quantum evolution is important in many settings. One example is the adiabatic quantum computation. Nevertheless, up to now, there is no effective method to test the adiabaticity of the evolution when the eigenenergies of the driven Hamiltonian are not known. We propose a simple method to check adiabaticity of a quantum process for an arbitrary quantum system. We further propose a operational method for finding a uniformly adiabatic quench scheme based on Kibble-Zurek mechanism for the case when the initial and the final Hamiltonians are given. This method should help in implementing adiabatic quantum computation.

Shards of Broken Symmetry: Topological Defects as Traces of the Phase Transition Dynamics

We discuss the origin of topological defects in phase transitions and analyze their role as a diagnostic tool in the study of the non-equilibrium dynamics of symmetry breaking. Homogeneous second order phase transitions are the focus of our attention, but the same paradigm is applied to the cross-over and inhomogeneous transitions. The discrepancy between the experimental results in 3He and 4He is discussed in the light of recent numerical studies. The possible role of the Ginzburg regime in determining the vortex line density for the case of a quench in 4He is raised and tentatively dismissed. The difference in the anticipated origin of the dominant signal in the two (3He and 4He) cases is pointed out and the resulting consequences for the subsequent decay of vorticity are noted. The possibility of a significant discrepancy between the effective field theory and (quantum) kinetic theory descriptions of the order parameter is briefly touched upon, using atomic Bose-Einstein condensates as an example.