Topological defect formation and spontaneous symmetry breaking in ion Coulomb crystals

• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3291
• Publication Date: 2013-08-07T09:56:54Z
• Authors: K. Pyka; J. Keller; H. L. Partner; R. Nigmatullin; T. Burgermeister; D. M. Meier; K. Kuhlmann; A Retzker; M. B. Plenio; W. H. Zurek; A. del Campo; T. E. Mehlstäubler
• Keywords: Topological defect

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.