Topological defect formation and spontaneous symmetry breaking in ion Coulomb crystals.
Symmetry breaking phase transitions play an important role in nature. When a system traverses such a transition at a finite rate, its causally disconnected regions choose the new broken symmetry state independently. Where such local choices are incompatible, topological defects can form. The Kibble-Zurek mechanism predicts the defect densities to follow a power law that scales with the rate of the transition. Owing to its ubiquitous nature, this theory finds application in a wide field of systems ranging from cosmology to condensed matter. Here we present the successful creation of defects in ion Coulomb crystals by a controlled quench of the confining potential, and observe an enhanced power law scaling in accordance with numerical simulations and recent predictions. This simple system with well-defined critical exponents opens up ways to investigate the physics of non-equilibrium dynamics from the classical to the quantum regime.
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Bundesallee 100, 38116 Braunschweig, Germany.
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K
Pyka
J
J
Keller
H L
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Partner
R
R
Nigmatullin
T
T
Burgermeister
D M
DM
Meier
K
K
Kuhlmann
A
A
Retzker
M B
MB
Plenio
W H
WH
Zurek
A
A
del Campo
T E
TE
Mehlstäubler