Universal scaling in far-from-equilibrium quantum systems: an equivalent differential approach

TL;DR

This paper introduces a universal differential equation describing non-thermal fixed points in far-from-equilibrium quantum systems, enabling insights into universal scaling laws and their implications for turbulence and thermalization.

Contribution

The work presents a differential equation framework capturing universal scaling at NTFPs, linking exponents to physical properties and validating the approach across multiple systems.

Findings

Derived universal exponents from the differential equation.

Validated the approach with three distinct physical systems.

Predicted power-laws related to particle and energy transport.

Abstract

Recent progress in out-of-equilibrium closed quantum systems has significantly advanced the understanding of mechanisms behind their evolution towards thermalization. Notably, the concept of non-thermal fixed points (NTFPs) - responsible for the emergence of spatio-temporal universal scaling in far-from-equilibrium systems - has played a crucial role in both theoretical and experimental investigations. In this work, we introduce a differential equation that has the universal scaling associated with NTFPs as a solution. The advantage of working with a differential equation, rather than only with its solution, is that we can extract several insightful properties not necessarily present in the solution alone. How the differential equation is derived allows physical interpretation of the universal exponents in terms of the time dependence of the amplitude of the distributions and their momentum scaling. Employing two limiting cases of the equation, we determined the universal exponents related to the scaling using the distributions near just two momentum values. We established a solid agreement with previous investigations by validating this approach with three distinct physical systems. This consistency highlights the universal nature of scaling due to NTFPs and emphasizes the predictive capabilities of the proposed differential equation. Moreover, under specific conditions, the equation predicts a power-law related to the ratio of the two universal exponents, leading to implications concerning particle and energy transport. This suggests that the observed power-laws in far-from-equilibrium turbulent fluids could be related to the universal scaling due to NTFPs, potentially offering new insights into the study of turbulence.