Related papers: Critical Slowing Down and Defect Formation
Half a century ago, T. Kibble proposed a scenario for topological defect formation from symmetry breaking during the expansion of the early Universe. W. Zurek later crystallized the concept to superfluid helium, predicting a power-law…
We present a pedagogical overview of recent theoretical work on unconventional quantum phases and quantum phase transitions in condensed matter systems. Strong correlations between electrons can lead to a breakdown of two traditional…
We investigate the dynamics of second order phase transitions in two dimensions, breaking a gauged U(1) symmetry. Using numerical simulations, we show that the density of topological defects formed scales with the quench timescale $\tau_Q$…
The far-from-equilibrium dynamics of generic interacting quantum systems is characterized by a handful of universal guiding principles, among them the ballistic spreading of initially local operators. Here, we show that in certain…
A quantum phase transition may occur in the ground state of a system at zero temperature when a controlling field or interaction is varied. The resulting quantum fluctuations which trigger the transition produce scaling behavior of various…
Stars form when cold cosmic nebulae spontaneously develop hot spots that steadily intensify until they reach fusion temperatures. Without this process, the universe would be dark and dead. Yet the spontaneous concentration of heat is…
Recently (arXiv:0910.2870), we have derived a fluctuation theorem for systems in thermodynamic equilibrium compatible with anomalous response functions, e.g. the existence of states with \textit{negative heat capacities} $C<0$. In this…
The approach of nonequilibrium evolution thermodynamics earlier offered is developed. It helps to describe the processes of defect formation within the adiabatic approximation. The basic equations system depends on the initial defects…
Production of gravitational vacuum defects and their contribution to the energy density of our Universe are discussed. These topological microstructures (defects) could be produced in the result of creation of the Universe from "nothing"…
We make a connection between quantum phase transitions in condensed matter systems, and supersymmetric gauge theories that are of interest in the particle physics literature. In particular, we point out interesting effects of the…
Critical phenomena arise ubiquitously in various context of physics, from condensed matter, high energy physics, cosmology, to biological systems, and consist of slow and long-distance fluctuations near a phase transition or critical point.…
We study non--equilibrium ensemble corrections to particle masses and the effective potential in the early universe, using a uniform momentum distribution as an example. The resulting thermalization temperature is computed assuming \sm…
The many-body physics at quantum phase transitions shows a subtle interplay between quantum and thermal fluctuations, emerging in the low-temperature limit. In this review, we first give a pedagogical introduction to the equilibrium…
Topological phase transitions in condensed matters accompany emerging singularities of the electronic wave function, often manifested by gap-closing points in the momentum space. In conventional topological insulators in three dimensions…
In this paper we address the question how the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, which describes the formation of topological defects in quantum systems subjected to a quench across a critical point, is generalized to the same scenario but for…
The interior crust and much of the liquid core of neutron stars is believed to be a quantum liquid mixture of neutron and proton superfluids and a relativistic electron liquid. Quantized vortices in the neutron superfluid and quantized flux…
We study the dynamics of first-order phase transition in the early Universe when it was $10-50 \mu s$ old with quarks and gluons condensing into hadrons. We look at how the Universe evolved through the phase transition in small as well as…
We consider the influence of quenched spatial disorder on phase transitions in classical and quantum systems. We show that rare strong disorder fluctuations can have dramatic effects on critical points. In classical systems with…
By resorting to some results in quantum field theories with spontaneous breakdown of symmetry we show that an explanation based on microscopic dynamics can be given of the fact that topological defect formation is observed during the…
There is a number of contradictory findings with regard to whether the theory describing easy-plane quantum antiferromagnets undergoes a second-order phase transition. The traditional Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson approach suggests a first-order…