2010/03/31 by Sebastian Diehl, Andrea Tomadin, Andrea Micheli +2 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.quant-gas
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.105.015702
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 015702 (2010) · 4+ pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2010/08/05 · arxiv updated 2010/08/06
We discuss an open driven-dissipative many-body system, in which the competition of unitary Hamiltonian and dissipative Liouvillian dynamics leads to a nonequilibrium phase transition. It shares features of a quantum phase transition in that it is interaction driven, and of a classical phase transition, in that the ordered phase is continuously connected to a thermal state. Within a generalized Gutzwiller approach which includes the description of mixed state density matrices, we characterize the complete phase diagram and the critical behavior at the phase transition approached as a function of time. We find a novel fluctuation induced dynamical instability, which occurs at long wavelength as a consequence of a subtle dissipative renormalization effect on the speed of sound.