相关论文: Critical Slowing Down and Defect Formation
Topological defects are common in many everyday systems. In general, they appear if a symmetry is broken at a rapid phase transition. In this article, I explain why it is believed that they should have also been formed in the early universe…
The formation of topological defects during continuous second-order phase transitions is well described by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM). However, when the spontaneously broken symmetry is only approximate, such transitions become smooth…
We revisit the Kibble-Zurek mechanism by analyzing the dynamics of phase ordering systems during an infinitely slow annealing across a second order phase transition. We elucidate the time and cooling rate dependence of the typical growing…
We examine the behavior of the standard-model electroweak phase transition in the early Universe. We argue that close to the critical temperature it is possible to estimate the {\it effective} infrared corrections to the 1-loop potential…
Deconfined quantum criticality (DQC) arises from fractionalization of quasi-particles and leads to fascinating behaviors beyond the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson description of phase transitions. Here, we study the critical dynamics when driving a…
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,…
We study the formation of topological defects in nonequilibrium phase transitions of both classical and quantum field theory. We examine three model systems. 1). The phase transition of a quantum scalar field in a FRW universe is analyzed…
We employ holographic techniques to explore the effects of momentum dissipation on the formation of topological defects during the critical dynamics of a strongly coupled superconductor after a linear quench of temperature. The gravity dual…
We study the influence of topology on the quench dynamics of a system driven across a quantum critical point. We show how the appearance of certain edge states, which fully characterise the topology of the system, dramatically modifies the…
Within the context of first order phase transitions in the early universe, we study the influence of a coupling between the (global U(1)) scalar driving the transition and the rest of the matter content of the theory. The effect of the…
We study the slow quench dynamics of a one-dimensional nonequilibrium lattice gas model which exhibits a phase transition in the stationary state between a fluid phase with homogeneously distributed particles and a jammed phase with a…
Many systems in nature and the synthetic world involve ordered arrangements of units on two-dimensional surfaces. We review here the fundamental role payed by both the topology of the underlying surface and its detailed curvature. Topology…
Kibble and Zurek have provided a unifying causal picture for the appearance of topological defects like cosmic strings or vortices at the onset of phase transitions in relativistic QFT and condensed matter systems respectively. There is no…
Topological defects shape the material and transport properties of physical systems. Examples range from vortex lines in quantum superfluids, defect-mediated buckling of graphene, and grain boundaries in ferromagnets and colloidal crystals,…
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…
In a finite-time continuous phase transition, topological defects emerge as the system undergoes spontaneous symmetry breaking. The Kibble-Zurek mechanism predicts how the defect density scales with the quench rate. During such processes,…
Topological defects such as cosmic strings may have been formed at early-universe phase transitions. Direct tests of this idea are impossible, but the mechanism can be elucidated by studying analogous processes in low-temperature…
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…
Gravity can play a role in critical phenomena. Topological singularities induce ground state degeneracy and break the continuum symmetry of the vacuum. They also generate momenta oscillations about an average momentum and a positive…
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…