Dagvadorj, G;
Fellows, JM;
Matyjaskiewicz, S;
Marchetti, FM;
Carusotto, I;
Szymanska, MH;
(2015)
Nonequilibrium Phase Transition in a Two-Dimensional Driven Open Quantum System.
Physical Review X
, 5
(4)
, Article 041028. 10.1103/PhysRevX.5.041028.
Preview |
Text
PhysRevX.5.041028.pdf Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
The Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless mechanism, in which a phase transition is mediated by the proliferation of topological defects, governs the critical behavior of a wide range of equilibrium two-dimensional systems with a continuous symmetry, ranging from spin systems to superconducting thin films and two-dimensional Bose fluids, such as liquid helium and ultracold atoms. We show here that this phenomenon is not restricted to thermal equilibrium, rather it survives more generally in a dissipative highly nonequilibrium system driven into a steady state. By considering a quantum fluid of polaritons of an experimentally relevant size, in the so-called optical parametric oscillator regime, we demonstrate that it indeed undergoes a phase transition associated with a vortex binding-unbinding mechanism. Yet, the exponent of the power-law decay of the first-order correlation function in the (algebraically) ordered phase can exceed the equilibrium upper limit: this shows that the ordered phase of driven-dissipative systems can sustain a higher level of collective excitations before the order is destroyed by topological defects. Our work suggests that the macroscopic coherence phenomena, observed recently in interacting two-dimensional light-matter systems, result from a nonequilibrium phase transition of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless rather than the Bose-Einstein condensation type.
Type: | Article |
---|---|
Title: | Nonequilibrium Phase Transition in a Two-Dimensional Driven Open Quantum System |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevX.5.041028 |
Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.5.041028 |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1467715 |
1. | United States | 5 |
2. | China | 3 |
3. | Japan | 2 |
4. | Russian Federation | 2 |
5. | Germany | 1 |
Archive Staff Only
View Item |