# Non-equilibrium quantum phase transition in a spinor quantum gas in a lattice coupled to a membrane

## TL;DR

This paper investigates a non-equilibrium quantum phase transition in a spinor Bose gas coupled to a membrane, revealing how spin degrees of freedom influence the transition between localized and symmetry-broken states.

## Contribution

It introduces an effective Hamiltonian for a spinor gas coupled to a membrane and analyzes the impact of spin on non-equilibrium phase transitions.

## Key findings

- Identification of a phase transition from localized to symmetry-broken states.
- Analysis of the stability of steady states using Bogoliubov-de Gennes approach.
- Mapping of the stationary phase diagram in parameter space.

## Abstract

Recently, a novel kind of hybrid atom-optomechanical system, consisting of atoms in a lattice coupled to a membrane, has been experimentally realized [Vochezer {\it et al.,} Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{120}, 073602 (2018)], which promises a viable contender in the competitive field of simulating non-equilibrium many-body physics. Here we are motivated to investigate a spinor Bose gas coupled to a vibrational mode of a nano-membrane, focusing on analyzing the role of the spinor degrees of freedom therein. Through an adiabatic elimination of the degrees of freedom of the quantum oscillator, we derive an effective Hamiltonian which reveals a competition between the force localizing the atoms and the membrane displacement. We analyze the dynamical stability of the steady state using Bogoliubov-de Gennes approach and derive the stationary phase diagram in the parameter space. We investigate the non-equilibrium quantum phase transition from a localized symmetric state of the atom cloud to a shifted symmetry-broken state, where we present a detailed analysis of the effects of the spin degree of freedom. Our work presents a simple way to study the effects of the spinor degree of freedom on the non-equilibrium nonlinear phenomena that is complementary to ongoing experiments on the hybrid atom-optomechanical system.