2012/06/30 by Boris Nowak, Jan Schole, Thomas Gasenzer · 3 citations
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Physical and Chemical Molecular Interactions #Bose gas #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensation #Critical point (mathematics) #Fixed point #Particle (ecology) #Quantum many-body systems #Scaling #Thermal #Thermalisation #Vortex #cond-mat.quant-gas #cond-mat.stat-mech #hep-ph #physics.flu-dyn
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/16/9/093052
published as New J. Phys. 16, 093052 (2014) · 5+2 pages, 8 figures
arxiv created 2013/07/11 · openalex publication_date 2014/09/30 · arxiv updated 2015/06/05 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
It is demonstrated how a many-body system far from thermal equilibrium can exhibit universal dynamics in passing a nonthermal fixed point. As an example, the process of Bose–Einstein (BE) condensation of a dilute cold gas is considered. If the particle flux into the low-energy modes, induced, for example by a cooling quench, is sufficiently strong, the Bose gas develops a characteristic power-law single-particle spectrum , and critical slowing down in time occurs. The fixed point is shown to be marked by the creation and dilution of tangled vortex lines. Alternatively, for a weak cooling quench and particle flux, the condensation process runs quasi-adiabatically, passing by the fixed point in the far distance, and the signatures of critical scaling remain absent.