Structural phase transition and its critical dynamics from holography

Understand

We introduce a gravitational lattice theory defined in an AdS$_3$ black hole background that provides a holographic dual description of the linear-to-zigzag structural phase transition, characterized by the spontaneous breaking of parity symmetry observed in, e.g., confined Coulomb crystals.

• The transition from the high-symmetry linear phase to the broken-symmetry doubly-degenerate zigzag phase can be driven by quenching the coupling between adjacent sites through the critical point.
• An analysis of the equilibrium correlation length and relaxation time reveals mean-field critical exponents.
• We explore the nonequilibrium phase transition dynamics leading to kink formation.