UNIVERSALITY OF PHASE TRANSITION DYNAMICS: TOPOLOGICAL DEFECTS FROM SYMMETRY BREAKING

Zurek, Wojciech H.¹  Del Campo, Adolfo¹ 

[1] Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

关键词: TOPOLOGICAL DEFECTS;    PHASE TRANSITIONS;    KIBBLE-ZUREK MECHANISM;    SPONTANEOUS SYMMETRY BREAKING;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1120720
RP-ID  :  LA-UR-14-20940
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1120720

学科分类：物理（综合）

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

In the course of a non-equilibrium continuous phase transition, the dynamics ceases to be adiabatic in the vicinity of the critical point as a result of the critical slowing down (the divergence of the relaxation time in the neighborhood of the critical point). This enforces a local choice of the broken symmetry and can lead to the formation of topological defects. The Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) was developed to describe the associated nonequilibrium dynamics and to estimate the density of defects as a function of the quench rate through the transition. During recent years, several new experiments investigating formation of defects in phase transitions induced by a quench both in classical and quantum mechanical systems were carried out. At the same time, some established results were called into question. We review and analyze the Kibble-Zurek mechanism focusing in particular on this surge of activity, and suggest possible directions for further progress.