Universal far-from-equilibrium Dynamics of a Holographic Superconductor

Understand

Symmetry breaking phase transitions are an example of non-equilibrium processes that require real time treatment, a major challenge in strongly coupled systems without long-lived quasiparticles.

• Holographic duality provides such an approach by mapping strongly coupled field theories in D dimensions into weakly coupled quantum gravity in D+1 anti-de Sitter spacetime.
• Here, we use holographic duality to study formation of topological defects -- winding numbers -- in the course of a superconducting transition in a strongly coupled theory in a 1D ring.
• When the system undergoes the transition on a given quench time, the condensate builds up with a delay that can be deduced using the Kibble-Zurek mechanism from the quench time and the universality class of the theory, as determined from the quasinormal mode spectrum of the dual model.