English

Is there Kibble-Zurek scaling of topological defects in first-order phase transitions?

Statistical Mechanics 2025-03-26 v1

Abstract

Kibble-Zurek scaling is the scaling of the density of the topological defects formed via the Kibble-Zurek mechanism with respect to the rate at which a system is cooled across a continuous phase transition. Recently, the density of the topological defects formed via the Kibble-Zurek mechanism was computed for a system cooled through a first-order phase transition instead of the usual continuous transitions. Here we address the problem of whether such defects generated across a first-order phase transition exhibit Kibble-Zurek scaling similar to the case in continuous phase transitions. We show that any possible Kibble-Zurek scaling for the topological defects can only be a very rough approximation due to an intrinsic field for the scaling. However, complete universal scaling for other properties does exist.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2501.01064,
  title  = {Is there Kibble-Zurek scaling of topological defects in first-order phase transitions?},
  author = {Fan Zhong},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.01064},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

6 pages, 2 figures