Symmetry re-breaking in an effective theory of quantum coarsening

TL;DR

This paper develops a simple theoretical framework to explain experimental observations of quantum coarsening, including accelerated domain growth near phase transitions and persistent oscillations, highlighting a novel symmetry re-breaking phenomenon.

Contribution

It introduces a Hamiltonian-based classical limit theory that explains coarsening speed-up, oscillations, and the symmetry re-breaking effect observed in quantum simulators.

Findings

Speeding up of coarsening within the ordered phase

Persistent oscillations of the order parameter

Long-time symmetry re-breaking with reversed magnetization

Abstract

We present a simple theory accounting for two central observations in a recent experiment on quantum coarsening and collective dynamics on a programmable quantum simulator [T. Manovitz et al., Nature \textbf{638}, 86 (2025)]: an apparent speeding up of the coarsening process as the phase transition is approached; and persistent oscillations of the order parameter after quenches within the ordered phase. Our theory, based on the Hamiltonian structure of the equations of motion in the classical limit of the quantum model, finds a speeding up already deep within the ordered phase, with subsequent slowing down as the domain wall tension vanishes upon approaching the critical line. Further, the oscillations are captured within a mean-field treatment of the order parameter field. For quenches within the ordered phase, small spatially-varying fluctuations in the initial mean-field lead to a remarkable long-time effect, wherein the system dynamically destroys its long-range order and has to coarsen to re-establish it. We term this phenomenon \emph{symmetry re-breaking}, as the resulting late-time magnetization can have a sign opposite to the initial magnetization.