Quenched Kosterlitz-Thouless Superfluid Transitions

TL;DR

This paper models the dynamics of superfluid phase transitions in 2D Kosterlitz-Thouless systems after rapid quenches, revealing vortex decay and superfluid density recovery consistent with simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a combined Fokker-Planck and KT recursion approach to analyze vortex behavior post-quench in 2D superfluids, providing new quantitative insights.

Findings

Vortex density decays approximately as 1/time after quench

Superfluid density recovers following vortex decay

Results align with computer simulations and scaling theories

Abstract

The properties of rapidly quenched superfluid phase transitions are computed for two-dimensional Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) systems. The decay in the vortex-pair density and the recovery of the superfluid density after a quench are found by solving the Fokker-Planck equation describing the vortex dynamics, in conjunction with the KT recursion relations. The vortex density is found to decay approximately as the inverse of the time from the quench, in agreement with computer simulations and with scaling theories.