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Zhi-Hong Li

Publications and source records attributed to Zhi-Hong Li.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

Kibble-Zurek Mechanism and Current-Phase Relation in a Holographic Josephson Junction

We present a comprehensive study of the current-phase relation of the Josephson junction in a holographic superfluid ring, realized from the stochastic and non-equilibrium dynamics according to the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. By employing a spatially modulated charge density to engineer a weak link, the current-phase relation is investigated in a range of geometric and thermodynamic parameters. The seminal sinusoidal relation between the current and the phase emerges periodically due to the compact shape of the geometry. We also identify the relations between the critical current and the geometric parameters of the junction: the width, steepness and depth. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the critical current exhibits a characteristic exponential decaying against the final temperature, reflecting the thermal degradation of the order parameter in a strong-coupling regime. Our results establish a robust framework for holographic Josephson devices, offering experimentally testable predictions for the non-equilibrium dynamics of high-$T_c$ superconductors.

hep-th

From black hole to one-dimensional chain: parity symmetry breaking and kink formation

AdS/CFT correspondence is a "first-principle" tool to study the strongly coupled many-body systems. While it has been extensively applied to investigate the continuous symmetry breaking dynamics, the discrete symmetry breaking dynamics are rarely investigated. In this paper, the model of kink formation in a strongly coupled one-dimensional chain is realized from the AdS/CFT correspondence. In doing so, we first construct a model of real scalar fields with parity symmetries in the AdS bulk. By quenching the system across the critical point at a finite rate, kink hairs turn out in the bulk due to the spontaneous parity symmetry breaking, which accomplishes a counter-example of "no hair conjecture" of black hole. Due to the AdS/CFT correspondence, kink hairs in the bulk are dual to the kinks in the AdS boundary. The mean of the dual kink numbers are found to satisfy a universal power-law relation to the quench rate, in agreement with the celebrated Kibble-Zurek mechanism. Moreover, the higher cumulants of the kink numbers are proportional to the mean numbers, consistent with the assumption that the formation of kinks satisfy the binomial distributions which goes beyond the Kibble-Zurek mechanism.

hep-th

Periodicities in a multiply connected geometry from quenched dynamics

Exploring the lowest energy configurations of a quantum system is consistent with the counting statistics of the frequently appeared states from quenching dynamics. By studying the Little-Parks periodicities in a multiply-connected ring-shaped geometry from the holographic technique, it is found that the frequently appeared states from dynamics incline to have lower free energies. In particular, the resulting winding numbers from quenched dynamics are constrained in a normal distribution for a fixed magnetic flux threading the ring. Varying the magnetic fluxes, Little-Parks periodicities will take place with periods identical to the flux quantum $Φ_0$. Favorable solutions with lowest free energies perform first order phase transitions which transform between distinct winding numbers as the magnetic flux equals half-integers multiplying $Φ_0$.

hep-th

Holographic topological defects in a ring: role of diverse boundary conditions

We investigate the formation of topological defects in the course of a dynamical phase transition with different boundary conditions in a ring from AdS/CFT correspondence. According to the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, quenching the system across the critical point to symmetry-breaking phase will result in topological defects -- winding numbers -- in a compact ring. By setting two different boundary conditions, i.e., Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions for the spatial component of the gauge fields in the AdS boundary, we achieve the holographic superfluid and holographic superconductor models, respectively. In the final equilibrium state, different configurations of the order parameter phases for these two models indicate a persistent superflow in the holographic superfluid, however, the holographic superconductor lacks this superflow due to the existence of local gauge fields. The two-point correlation functions of the order parameter also behave differently. In particular, for holographic superfluid the correlation function is a cosine function depending on the winding number. The correlation function for the holographic superconductor, however, decays rapidly at short distances and vanishes at long distance, due to the random localities of the gauge fields. These results are consistent with our theoretical analysis.

hep-th

Holographic topological defects and local gauge symmetry: clusters of strongly coupled equal-sign vortices

Gauge invariance plays an important role in forming topological defects. In this work, from the AdS/CFT correspondence, we realize the clusters of equal-sign vortices during the course of critical dynamics of a strongly coupled superconductor. This is the first time to achieve the equal-sign vortex clusters in strongly coupled systems, considering that vortices with equal sign repel. The appearance of clusters of equal-sign vortices is a typical character of flux trapping mechanism, distinct from Kibble-Zurek mechanism which merely presents vortex-antivortex pair distributions resulting from global symmetry breaking. Numerical results of spatial correlations and net fluxes of the equal-sign vortex clusters quantitatively support the positive correlations between vortices. The linear dependence between the vortex number and the amplitude of magnetic field at the `trapping' time demonstrates the flux trapping mechanism very well.

hep-th

Universal Statistics of Vortices in a Newborn Holographic Superconductor: Beyond the Kibble-Zurek Mechanism

Traversing a continuous phase transition at a finite rate leads to the breakdown of adiabatic dynamics and the formation of topological defects, as predicted by the celebrated Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM). We investigate universal signatures beyond the KZM, by characterizing the distribution of vortices generated in a thermal quench leading to the formation of a holographic superconductor. The full counting statistics of vortices is described by a binomial distribution, in which the mean value is dictated by the KZM and higher-order cumulants share the universal power-law scaling with the quench time. Extreme events associated with large fluctuations no longer exhibit a power-law behavior with the quench time and are characterized by a universal form of the Weibull distribution for different quench rates.

cond-mat.stat-mech

Topological Defects Formation with Momentum Dissipation

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 is the dRGT massive gravity in which the conservation of momentum in the boundary field theory is broken by the presence of a bulk graviton mass. From the scaling relations of defects number and "freeze-out" time to the quench rate for various graviton masses, we demonstrate that the momentum dissipation induced by graviton mass has little effect on the scaling laws compared to the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. Inspired from Pippard's formula in condensed matter, we propose an analytic relation between the coherence length and the graviton mass, which agrees well with the numerical results from the quasi-normal modes analysis. As a result, the coherence length decreases with respect to the graviton mass, which indicates that the momentum dissipation will augment the number of topological defects.

hep-th

Formation and critical dynamics of topological defects in Lifshitz holography

We examine the formation and critical dynamics of topological defects via Kibble-Zurek mechanism in a (2+1)-dimensional quantum critical point, which is conjectured to dual to a Lifshitz geometry. Quantized magnetic fluxoids are spontaneously generated and trapped in the cores of order parameter vortices, which is a feature of type II superconductors. Time evolution of the average condensate is found to lag behind the instantaneous equilibrium value of the order parameter, a typical phenomenon in nonequilibrium dynamics. Scalings of vortex number density and the "freeze-out" time match the predictions from Kibble-Zurek mechanism. From these scalings, the dynamic and static critical exponents in the boundary field theory are found, at least at finite temperature, to be irrespective of the Lifshitz exponent in the bulk.

hep-th

The nature of the Li enrichment in the most Li-rich giant star

About one percent of giants\upcite{Brown1989} are detected to have anomalously high lithium (Li) abundances in their atmospheres, conflicting directly with the prediction of the standard stellar evolution models\upcite{Iben1967}, and making the production and evolution of Li more intriguing, not only in the sense of the Big Bang nucleosynthesis\upcite{Cyburt2016,Spite1982} or the Galactic medium\upcite{Tajitsu2015}, but also the evolution of stars. Decades of efforts have been put into explaining why such outliers exist\upcite{Sackmann1999, Denissenkov2004, Charbonnel2010}, yet the origins of Li-rich giants are still being debated. Here we report the discovery of the most Li-rich giant known to date, with a super-high Li abundance of 4.51. This rare phenomenon was snapshotted together with another short-term event that the star is experiencing its luminosity bump on the red giant branch. Such high Li abundance indicates that the star might be at the very beginning of its Li-rich phase, which provides a great opportunity to investigate the origin and evolution of Li in the Galaxy. A detailed nuclear simulation is presented with up-to-date reaction rates to recreate the Li enriching process in this star. Our results provide tight constraints on both observational and theoretical points of view, suggesting that low-mass giants can produce Li inside themselves to a super high level via $^{7}$Be transportation during the red giant phase.

astro-ph.SR

New determination of the spectroscopic factor of $^7$Be ground state and the $^6$Li($p,γ$)$^7$Be astrophysical S(E) factors

The `lithium problem' in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) has recently focused on the reactions involving $^7$Be. The $^6$Li($p, γ$)$^7$Be reaction can provide us not only the information for destroying $^6$Li but also the information for producing $^7$Be. In the present work, the proton spectroscopic factor in $^7$Be was extracted to be 0.70 $\pm$ 0.17 from the angular distribution of $^7$Be($d$, $^3$He)$^6$Li at $E_\mathrm{c.m.}$ = 6.7 MeV. The value was then used to compute the direct component of the astrophysical $^6$Li($p, γ$)$^7$Be$_\mathrm{g.s.}$ S(E) factors and determine the resonance parameters from the total S(E) factors.

nucl-ex

Competing s-wave orders from Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity

In this paper, the holographic superconductor model with two s-wave orders from 4+1 dimensional Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity is explored in the probe limit. At different values of the Gauss-Bonnet coefficient $α$, we study the influence of tuning the mass and charge parameters of the bulk scalar field on the free energy curve of condensed solution with signal s-wave order, and compare the difference of tuning the two different parameters while the changes of the critical temperature are the same. Based on the above results, it is indicated that the two free energy curves of different s-wave orders can have one or two intersection points, where two typical phase transition behaviors of the s+s coexistent phase, including the reentrant phase transition near the Chern-Simons limit $α=0.25$, can be found. We also give an explanation to the nontrivial behavior of the $T_c-α$ curves near the Chern-Simons limit, which might be heuristic to understand the origin of the reentrant behavior near the Chern-Simons limit.

hep-th