4 research outputs found
Causality and defect formation in the dynamics of an engineered quantum phase transition in a coupled binary Bose-Einstein condensate
Continuous phase transitions occur in a wide range of physical systems, and
provide a context for the study of non-equilibrium dynamics and the formation
of topological defects. The Kibble-Zurek (KZ) mechanism predicts the scaling of
the resulting density of defects as a function of the quench rate through a
critical point, and this can provide an estimate of the critical exponents of a
phase transition. In this work we extend our previous study of the
miscible-immiscible phase transition of a binary Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC)
composed of two hyperfine states in which the spin dynamics are confined to one
dimension [J. Sabbatini et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 230402 (2011)]. The
transition is engineered by controlling a Hamiltonian quench of the coupling
amplitude of the two hyperfine states, and results in the formation of a random
pattern of spatial domains. Using the numerical truncated Wigner phase space
method, we show that in a ring BEC the number of domains formed in the phase
transitions scales as predicted by the KZ theory. We also consider the same
experiment performed with a harmonically trapped BEC, and investigate how the
density inhomogeneity modifies the dynamics of the phase transition and the KZ
scaling law for the number of domains. We then make use of the symmetry between
inhomogeneous phase transitions in anisotropic systems, and an inhomogeneous
quench in a homogeneous system, to engineer coupling quenches that allow us to
quantify several aspects of inhomogeneous phase transitions. In particular, we
quantify the effect of causality in the propagation of the phase transition
front on the resulting formation of domain walls, and find indications that the
density of defects is determined during the impulse to adiabatic transition
after the crossing of the critical point.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures. Minor corrections, typos, additional referenc
Search for transient variations of the fine structure constant and dark matter using fiber-linked optical atomic clocks
We search for transient variations of the fine structure constant using data from a European network of fiber-linked optical atomic clocks. By searching for coherent variations in the recorded clock frequency comparisons across the network, we significantly improve the constraints on transient variations of the fine structure constant. For example, we constrain the variation to |δα/α|~10^4 km) objects