Universality of Phase Transition Dynamics: Topological Defects from Symmetry Breaking

@article{Campo2013UniversalityOP,
  title={Universality of Phase Transition Dynamics: Topological Defects from Symmetry Breaking},
  author={Adolfo del Campo and Wojciech H. Zurek},
  journal={International Journal of Modern Physics A},
  year={2013},
  volume={29},
  pages={1430018}
}
  • A. CampoW. Zurek
  • Published 6 October 2013
  • Physics
  • International Journal of Modern Physics A
In the course of a nonequilibrium continuous phase transition, the dynamics ceases to be adiabatic in the vicinity of the critical point as a result of the critical slowing down (the divergence of the relaxation time in the neighborhood of the critical point). This enforces a local choice of the broken symmetry and can lead to the formation of topological defects. The Kibble–Zurek mechanism (KZM) was developed to describe the associated nonequilibrium dynamics and to estimate the density of… 
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