Revealing the nature of nonequilibrium phase transitions with quantum trajectories
Abstract
A damped and driven collective spin system is analyzed by using quantum state diffusion. This approach allows for a mostly analytical treatment of the investigated nonequilibrium quantum many-body dynamics, which features a phase transition in the thermodynamical limit. The exact results obtained in this work, which are free of any finite-size defects, provide a complete understanding of the model. Moreover, the trajectory framework gives an intuitive picture of the two phases occurring, revealing a spontaneously broken symmetry and allowing for a qualitative and quantitative characterization of the phases. We determine exact critical exponents, investigate finite-size scaling, and explain a remarkable nonalgebraic behavior at the transition in terms of torus hopping.
- Publication:
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Physical Review A
- Pub Date:
- June 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevA.99.062120
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1812.01907
- Bibcode:
- 2019PhRvA..99f2120L
- Keywords:
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- Quantum Physics
- E-Print:
- 5 pages, 5 figures