Dynamics of a Nonequilibrium Discontinuous Quantum Phase Transition in a Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensate

TL;DR

This paper investigates the dynamics of a first-order quantum phase transition in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate, demonstrating how the Kibble-Zurek mechanism applies to understand critical scaling and domain formation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism to first-order quantum phase transitions in spinor condensates, providing a new framework for understanding metastable decay.

Findings

Kibble-Zurek scaling applies to first-order transitions in spinor BECs

Critical exponents for metastable decay and domain formation are determined

Numerical simulations confirm theoretical predictions

Abstract

Symmetry-breaking quantum phase transitions lead to the production of topological defects or domain walls in a wide range of physical systems. In second-order transitions, these exhibit universal scaling laws described by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, but for first-order transitions a similarly universal approach is still lacking. Here we propose a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate as a testbed system where critical scaling behavior in a first-order quantum phase transition can be understood from generic properties. We demonstrate the applicability of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism for this transition to determine the critical exponents for: (1) the onset of the decay of the metastable state on short times scales, and (2) the number of resulting phase-separated ferromagnetic domains at longer times, as a one-dimensional spin-1 condensate is ramped across a first-order quantum phase transition. The predictions are in excellent agreement with mean-field numerical simulations and provide a paradigm for studying the decay of metastable states in experimentally accessible systems.