Modification of late time phase structure by quantum quenches

TL;DR

This paper investigates how sudden changes in coupling constants (quenches) affect the late-time phase structure of a 3D phi^6 model, revealing new stable phases and a dominant massive vacuum not explained by thermalization.

Contribution

It demonstrates that quantum quenches can alter phase stability and induce new phases in a 3D phi^6 model, expanding understanding of non-equilibrium quantum field dynamics.

Findings

Widened stability range of phi^6 coupling after quenches

Emergence of a new massive phase at large coupling

Phenomena not attributable to simple thermalization

Abstract

The consequences of the sudden change in the coupling constants (quenches) on the phase structure of the theory at late times are explored. We study in detail the three dimensional phi^6 model in the large N limit, and show that the phi^6 coupling enjoys a widened range of stability compared to the static scenario. Moreover, a new massive phase emerges, which for sufficiently large coupling becomes the dominant vacuum. We argue that these novel phenomena cannot be described by a simple thermalization effect or the emergence of a single effective temperature.