Universal breakdown of Kibble-Zurek scaling in fast quenches across a phase transition

Hua-Bi Zeng; Chuan-Yin Xia; Adolfo del Campo

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.130.060402

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arXiv · 2204.13529

Universal breakdown of Kibble-Zurek scaling in fast quenches across a phase transition

Hua-Bi Zeng·Chuan-Yin Xia·Adolfo del Campo

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Abstract

The crossing of a continuous phase transition gives rise to the formation of topological defects described by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) in the limit of slow quenches. The KZM predicts a universal power-law scaling of the defect density as a function of the quench time. We focus on the deviations from KZM experimentally observed in rapid quenches and establish their universality. While KZM scaling holds below a critical quench rate, for faster quenches the defect density and the freeze-out time become independent of the quench rate and exhibit a universal power-law scaling with the final value of the control parameter. These predictions are verified in several paradigmatic scenarios in both the classical and quantum domains.

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Hua-Bi Zeng, Chuan-Yin Xia, Adolfo del Campo. 2022-04-28. Universal breakdown of Kibble-Zurek scaling in fast quenches across a phase transition. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.130.060402

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