Related papers: Structural defects in ion crystals by quenching th…
Structural defects in ion crystals can be formed during a linear quench of the transverse trapping frequency across the mechanical instability from a linear chain to the zigzag structure. The density of defects after the sweep can be…
We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of the linear to zigzag structural phase transition exhibited by an ion chain confined in a trap with periodic boundary conditions. The transition is driven by reducing the transverse confinement at a…
An equally spaced linear chain of ions provides a test-bed for studying the defect formation in a finite size 1D system. In particular, defect formation related to topological phase transition from a linear configuration to a zig-zag one is…
The spontaneous nucleation and dynamics of topological kink defects have been studied in trapped arrays of 41-43 Yb ions. The number of kinks formed as a function of quench rate across the linear-zigzag transition is measured in the…
According to the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, there is a universal power-law relationship between the defect density and the quench rate during a slow linear quench through a critical point. It is generally accepted that a fast quench results in…
A string of trapped ions at zero temperature exhibits a structural phase transition to a zigzag structure, tuned by reducing the transverse trap potential or the interparticle distance. The transition is driven by transverse, short…
We use laser-cooled ion Coulomb crystals in the well-controlled environment of a harmonic radiofrequency ion trap to investigate phase transitions and defect formation. Topological defects in ion Coulomb crystals (kinks) have been recently…
Traversal of a symmetry-breaking phase transition at a finite rate can lead to causallyseparated regions with incompatible symmetries and the formation of defects at their boundaries. The defect formation follows universal scaling laws…
Quenches in an ion chain can create coherent superpositions of motional states across the linear-zigzag structural transition. The procedure has been described in [Phys. Rev. A 84, 063821 (2011)] and makes use of spin-dependent forces, so…
The Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) successfully predicts the density of topological defects deposited by the phase transitions, but it is not clear why. Its key conjecture is that, near the critical point of the second-order phase transition,…
The Kibble-Zurek mechanism is the paradigm to account for the nonadiabatic dynamics of a system across a continuous phase transition. Its study in the quantum regime is hindered by the requisite of ground state cooling. We report the…
We numerically study the density of topological defects for a two-dimensional assembly of particles driven over quenched disorder as a function of quench rate through the nonequilibrium phase transition from a plastic disordered flowing…
A chain of singly-charged particles, confined by a harmonic potential, exhibits a sudden transition to a zigzag configuration when the radial potential reaches a critical value, depending on the particle number. This structural change is a…
Kibble-Zurek mechanism is a theory of defect formation in a non-equilibrium continuous phase transition. So far the theory has been successfully tested by numerical simulations and condensed matter experiments in a number of systems with…
A quasi one--dimensional system of trapped, repulsively interacting atoms (e.g., an ion chain) exhibits a structural phase transition from a linear chain to a zigzag structure, tuned by reducing the transverse trap potential or increasing…
The Kibble-Zurek mechanism describes defect production due to non-adiabatic passage through a critical point. Here we study its variant from ramping the environment temperature to a critical point. We find that the defect density scales as…
In transverse-field Ising models, disorder in the couplings gives rise to a drastic reduction of the critical energy gap and, accordingly, to an unfavorable, slower-than-algebraic scaling of the density of defects produced when the system…
Ion traps are a versatile tool to study nonequilibrium statistical physics, due to the tunability of dissipation and nonlinearity. We propose an experiment with a chain of trapped ions, where dissipation is provided by laser heating and…
Symmetry breaking phase transitions play an important role in nature. When a system traverses such a transition at a finite rate, its causally disconnected regions choose the new broken symmetry state independently. Where such local choices…
We study the quantum dynamics of a one-dimensional spin-1/2 anisotropic XY model in a transverse field when the transverse field or the anisotropic interaction is quenched at a slow but uniform rate. The two quenching schemes are called…