Abstract
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.
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del Campo, A., Gómez-Ruiz, F.J., Li, ZH. et al. Universal statistics of vortices in a newborn holographic superconductor: beyond the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. J. High Energ. Phys. 2021, 61 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2021)061
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2021)061