Topological defect formation and spontaneous symmetry breaking in ion Coulomb crystals
Topological defect formation and spontaneous symmetry breaking in ion Coulomb crystals
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DOI：
10.1038/ncomms3291
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发表时间：
2013-08-01
影响因子：
16.6
通讯作者：
Mehlstaeubler, T. E.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Pyka, K.;Keller, J.;Mehlstaeubler, T. E.
对称性破缺相变在自然界中起着重要的作用。当系统以有限的速率经历这样的转变时，其因果断开的区域独立地选择新的对称性破缺状态。在这种局部选择不相容的情况下，可以形成拓扑缺陷。Kibble-Zurek机制预测缺陷密度遵循与转变速率成比例的幂律。由于其无处不在的性质，这一理论在从宇宙学到凝聚态物质的广泛系统领域中找到了应用。在这里，我们提出了成功地创建离子库仑晶体中的缺陷的限制电位的受控淬火，并观察到增强的幂律缩放根据数值模拟和最近的预测。这个简单的系统与定义明确的临界指数开辟了研究从经典到量子机制的非平衡动力学物理的途径。
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 are incompatible, topological defects can form. The Kibble-Zurek mechanism predicts the defect densities to follow a power law that scales with the rate of the transition. Owing to its ubiquitous nature, this theory finds application in a wide field of systems ranging from cosmology to condensed matter. Here we present the successful creation of defects in ion Coulomb crystals by a controlled quench of the confining potential, and observe an enhanced power law scaling in accordance with numerical simulations and recent predictions. This simple system with well-defined critical exponents opens up ways to investigate the physics of non-equilibrium dynamics from the classical to the quantum regime.