272 research outputs found
Breakdown of the adiabatic limit in low dimensional gapless systems
It is generally believed that a generic system can be reversibly transformed
from one state into another by sufficiently slow change of parameters. A
standard argument favoring this assertion is based on a possibility to expand
the energy or the entropy of the system into the Taylor series in the ramp
speed. Here we show that this argumentation is only valid in high enough
dimensions and can break down in low-dimensional gapless systems. We identify
three generic regimes of a system response to a slow ramp: (A) mean-field, (B)
non-analytic, and (C) non-adiabatic. In the last regime the limits of the ramp
speed going to zero and the system size going to infinity do not commute and
the adiabatic process does not exist in the thermodynamic limit. We support our
results by numerical simulations. Our findings can be relevant to
condensed-matter, atomic physics, quantum computing, quantum optics, cosmology
and others.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Nature Physics (originally
submitted version
Dynamical Quantum Phase Transitions in the Transverse Field Ising Model
A phase transition indicates a sudden change in the properties of a large
system. For temperature-driven phase transitions this is related to
non-analytic behavior of the free energy density at the critical temperature:
The knowledge of the free energy density in one phase is insufficient to
predict the properties of the other phase. In this paper we show that a close
analogue of this behavior can occur in the real time evolution of quantum
systems, namely non-analytic behavior at a critical time. We denote such
behavior a dynamical phase transition and explore its properties in the
transverse field Ising model. Specifically, we show that the equilibrium
quantum phase transition and the dynamical phase transition in this model are
intimately related.Comment: 4+4 pages, 4 figures, Appendix adde
Failure of Scattering Interference in the Pseudogap State of Cuprate Superconductors
We calculate scattering interference patterns for various electronic states
proposed for the pseudogap regime of the cuprate superconductors. The
scattering interference models all produce patterns whose wavelength changes as
a function of energy, in contradiction to the energy-independent wavelength
seen by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments in the pseudogap state.
This suggests that the patterns seen in STM local density of states
measurements are not due to scattering interference, but are rather the result
of some form of ordering.Comment: To be submitted to Phys. Rev.
Modulation of the local density of states within the -density wave theory in the underdoped cuprates
The low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy spectra in the underdoped
regime is analyzed from the perspective of coexisting -density wave and
d-wave superconducting states. The calculations are carried out in the presence
of a low concentration of unitary impurities and within the framework of the
fully self-consistent Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory, which allows local
modulations of the magnitude of the order parameters in response to the
impurities. Our theory captures the essential aspects of the experiments in the
underdoped BSCCO at very low temperatures.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figures, RevTex4. New added material as well as
reference
Superfluid-insulator transition in a moving system of interacting bosons
We analyze stability of superfluid currents in a system of strongly
interacting ultra-cold atoms in an optical lattice. We show that such a system
undergoes a dynamic, irreversible phase transition at a critical phase gradient
that depends on the interaction strength between atoms. At commensurate
filling, the phase boundary continuously interpolates between the classical
modulation instability of a weakly interacting condensate and the equilibrium
quantum phase transition into a Mott insulator state at which the critical
current vanishes. We argue that quantum fluctuations smear the transition
boundary in low dimensional systems. Finally we discuss the implications to
realistic experiments.Comment: updated refernces and introduction, minor correction
Dynamic Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in 2D Bose mixtures of ultra-cold atoms
We propose a realistic experiment to demonstrate a dynamic
Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in ultra-cold atomic gases in two dimensions.
With a numerical implementation of the Truncated Wigner Approximation we
simulate the time evolution of several correlation functions, which can be
measured via matter wave interference. We demonstrate that the relaxational
dynamics is well-described by a real-time renormalization group approach, and
argue that these experiments can guide the development of a theoretical
framework for the understanding of critical dynamics.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure
Light cone dynamics and reverse Kibble-Zurek mechanism in two-dimensional superfluids following a quantum quench
We study the dynamics of the relative phase of a bilayer of two-dimensional
superfluids after the two superfluids have been decoupled. We find that on
short time scales the relative phase shows "light cone" like dynamics and
creates a metastable superfluid state, which can be supercritical. We also
demonstrate similar light cone dynamics for the transverse field Ising model.
On longer time scales the supercritical state relaxes to a disordered state due
to dynamical vortex unbinding. This scenario of dynamically suppressed vortex
proliferation constitutes a reverse-Kibble-Zurek effect. We study this effect
both numerically using truncated Wigner approximation and analytically within a
newly suggested time dependent renormalization group approach (RG). In
particular, within RG we show that there are two possible fixed points for the
real time evolution corresponding to the superfluid and normal steady states.
So depending on the initial conditions and the microscopic parameters of the
Hamiltonian the system undergoes a non-equilibrium phase transition of the
Kosterlitz-Thouless type. The time scales for the vortex unbinding near the
critical point are exponentially divergent, similar to the equilibrium case.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure
Periodic Coherence Peak Height Modulations in Superconducting BSCCO
In this paper we analyze, using scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS), the
local density of electronic states (LDOS) in nearly optimally doped BSCCO in
zero field. We see both dispersive and non-dispersive spatial LDOS modulations
as a function of energy in our samples. Moreover, a spatial map of the
superconducting coherence peak heights shows the same structure as the low
energy LDOS. This suggests that these non-dispersive LDOS modulations originate
from an underlying charge-density modulation which interacts with
superconductivity.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures with 15 total eps file
Time-resolved Observation and Control of Superexchange Interactions with Ultracold Atoms in Optical Lattices
Quantum mechanical superexchange interactions form the basis of quantum
magnetism in strongly correlated electronic media. We report on the direct
measurement of superexchange interactions with ultracold atoms in optical
lattices. After preparing a spin-mixture of ultracold atoms in an
antiferromagnetically ordered state, we measure a coherent
superexchange-mediated spin dynamics with coupling energies from 5 Hz up to 1
kHz. By dynamically modifying the potential bias between neighboring lattice
sites, the magnitude and sign of the superexchange interaction can be
controlled, thus allowing the system to be switched between antiferromagnetic
or ferromagnetic spin interactions. We compare our findings to predictions of a
two-site Bose-Hubbard model and find very good agreement, but are also able to
identify corrections which can be explained by the inclusion of direct
nearest-neighbor interactions.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figure
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