Topological Defects in Anisotropic Driven Open Systems

TL;DR

This paper investigates how anisotropy and non-equilibrium conditions influence vortex behavior in the anisotropic KPZ equation, revealing new universal critical phenomena and implications for various physical systems.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of vortex unbinding in anisotropic, driven open systems, highlighting novel critical behavior and stabilization mechanisms.

Findings

Anisotropy stabilizes the ordered phase by enhancing vortex binding.

Discovery of universal critical behavior in vortex unbinding.

Relevance to quantum systems and dissipative time crystals.

Abstract

We study the dynamics and unbinding transition of vortices in the compact anisotropic Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation. The combination of non-equilibrium conditions and strong spatial anisotropy drastically affects the structure of vortices and amplifies their mutual binding forces, thus stabilizing the ordered phase. We find novel universal critical behavior in the vortex-unbinding crossover in finite-size systems. These results are relevant for a wide variety of physical systems, ranging from strongly coupled light-matter quantum systems to dissipative time crystals.