2021/01/31 by Adolfo del Campo, Fernando Javier Gómez-Ruiz, Fernando J. Gómez-Ruiz +4 · 41 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Adiabatic process #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Condensed matter physics #Distribution (mathematics) #Geometry #Mathematics #Phase transition #Physics #Power law #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum mechanics #Scaling #Statistical physics #Statistics #Superconductivity #Theoretical and Computational Physics #Thermodynamics #Topological defect #Vortex #Weibull distribution #cond-mat.stat-mech #hep-th #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/jhep06(2021)061
published in Journal of High Energy Physics 2021(6) (Springer Nature) · Submitted version
openalex publication_date 2021/06/01 · arxiv created 2021/06/10 · arxiv updated 2021/06/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
A bstract Traversing a continuous phase transition at a finite rate leads to the breakdown of adiabatic dynamics and the formation of topological defects, as predicted by the celebrated Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM). We investigate universal signatures beyond the KZM, by characterizing the distribution of vortices generated in a thermal quench leading to the formation of a holographic superconductor. The full counting statistics of vortices is described by a binomial distribution, in which the mean value is dictated by the KZM and higher-order cumulants share the universal power-law scaling with the quench time. Extreme events associated with large fluctuations no longer exhibit a power-law behavior with the quench time and are characterized by a universal form of the Weibull distribution for different quench rates.