Work

Space and time renormalization in phase transition dynamics

Year: 2016

Type: article

Abstract: When a system is driven across a quantum critical point at a constant rate, its evolution must become nonadiabatic as the relaxation time $\ensuremath{\tau}$ diverges at the critical point. According to the Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM), the emerging post-transition excited state is characterized by a finite correlation length $\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{\ensuremath{\xi}}$ set at the time $\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{t}=\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{\ensuremath{\tau}}$ when the critical slowing down makes it impossible for the system to relax to the equilibrium defined by changing parameters. This observation naturally suggests a dynamical scaling similar to renormalization familiar from the equilibrium critical phenomena. We provide evidence for such KZM-inspired spatiotemporal scaling by investigating an exact solution of the transverse field quantum Ising chain in the thermodynamic limit.

Source: Physical review. B./Physical review. B

DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.93.075134

Authors: Anna Francuz, Jacek Dziarmaga, Bartłomiej Gardas, Wojciech H. Zurek

Institutions: Jagiellonian University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of Silesia in Katowice

Language: English

Topic: Quantum many-body systems

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: U.S. Department of Energy, Narodowe Centrum Nauki, Laboratory Directed Research and Development, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Award: G8074471414