Related papers: Quantum simulation of bubble nucleation across a q…
Metastability is a quintessential feature of first order quantum phase transitions, which is lost either by dynamical instability or by nucleating bubbles of a true vacuum through quantum tunneling. By considering a drive across the first…
Metastable `false' vacuum states are an important feature of the Standard Model of particle physics and many theories beyond it. Describing the dynamics of a phase transition out of a false vacuum via the nucleation of bubbles is essential…
In quantum field theory, the decay of an extended metastable state into the real ground state is known as ``false vacuum decay'' and it takes place via the nucleation of spatially localized bubbles. Despite the large theoretical effort to…
Open quantum many-body systems with controllable dissipation can exhibit novel features in their dynamics and steady states. A paradigmatic example is the dissipative transverse field Ising model. It has been shown recently that the steady…
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…
False vacuum decay in quantum mechanical first order phase transitions is a phenomenon with wide implications in cosmology, and presents interesting theoretical challenges. In the standard approach, it is assumed that false vacuum decay…
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…
Quantum many body system in equilibrium can be effectively characterized using the framework of quantum statistical mechanics. However, nonequilibrium behaviour of quantum many body systems remains elusive, out of the range of such a well…
We analyze the quantum phase transitions taking place in a one-dimensional transverse field Ising model with long-range couplings that decay algebraically with distance. We are interested in the Kibble-Zurek universal scaling laws emerging…
A quantum simulator is a well controlled quantum system that can simulate the behavior of another quantum system which may require exponentially large classical computing resources to understand otherwise. In the 1980s, Feynman proposed the…
False vacuum decay, which is understood to happen through bubble nucleation, is a prominent phenomenon relevant to elementary particle physics and early-universe cosmology. Understanding its microscopic dynamics in higher spatial dimensions…
Distinguishing whether a system supports alternate low-energy (locally stable) states -- stable (true vacuum) versus metastable (false vacuum) -- by direct observation can be difficult when the lifetime of the state is very long but…
Fluid phase equilibrium depends on the external constraints imposed on a system. In a closed system with fixed volume, depending on the average density, a vapor bubble may be stable, metastable, or unstable, with respect to the homogeneous…
Metastable states of quantum many-body systems with confinement offer a means to simulate false vacuum phenomenology, including non-equilibrium dynamical processes like decay by nucleation, in truncated limits. Recent work has examined the…
Despite being at the heart of the theory of the "Big Bang" and cosmic inflation, the quantum field theory prediction of false vacuum tunneling has not been tested. To address the exponential complexity of the problem, a table-top quantum…
Pump-probe spectroscopy is a powerful tool for probing response dynamics of quantum many-body systems in and out-of-equilibrium. Quantum computers have proved useful in simulating such experiments by exciting the system, evolving, and then…
We revisit quantum false vacuum decay for the one-dimensional Ising model, focusing on the real-time nucleation and growth of true vacuum bubbles. Via matrix product state simulations, we demonstrate that for a wide range of parameters, the…
We apply a recently developed theory for metastability in open quantum systems to a one-dimensional dissipative quantum Ising model. Earlier results suggest this model features either a non-equilibrium phase transition or a smooth but sharp…
Discontinuous quantum phase transitions and the associated metastability play central roles in diverse areas of physics ranging from ferromagnetism to false vacuum decay in the early universe. Using strongly-interacting ultracold atoms in…
We consider non-equilibrium phenomena in a very simple model that displays a zero-temperature first-order phase transition. The quantum Ising model with a four-spin exchange is adopted as a general representative of first-order quantum…