Dynamical Phase Transition from Nonequilibrium Dynamics of Dark Solitons

TL;DR

This paper uncovers a temperature-dependent dynamical phase transition in superfluid dark solitons, where the system's relaxation behavior changes at a critical temperature, characterized by vortex pair density scaling.

Contribution

It introduces a novel dynamical phase transition in superfluid dark soliton dynamics using holographic duality, revealing critical behavior near the transition temperature.

Findings

Below critical temperature, vortex-antivortex pairs form and scale as (T_d - T)^0.5.

Above critical temperature, the system relaxes via sound wave emission.

Identifies a critical temperature T_d separating two distinct dynamical regimes.

Abstract

By holographic duality, we identify a novel dynamical phase transition which results from the temperature dependence of non-equilibrium dynamics of dark solitons in a superfluid.For a non-equilibrium superfluid system with an initial density of dark solitons, there exists a critical temperature $T_d$,above which the system relaxes to equilibrium by producing sound waves, while below which it goes through an intermediate phase with a finite density of vortex-antivortex pairs. In particular, as $T_d$ is approached from below, the density of vortex pairs scales as $(T_d - T)^\gamma$ with the critical exponent $\gamma = 1/2$.