Suppressing the Kibble-Zurek Mechanism by a Symmetry-Violating Bias

Rysti, J. and Mäkinen, J.T. and Autti, S. and Kamppinen, T. and Volovik, G.E. and Eltsov, V.B. (2021) Suppressing the Kibble-Zurek Mechanism by a Symmetry-Violating Bias. Physical review letters, 127 (11): 115702. ISSN 1079-7114

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Abstract

The formation of topological defects in continuous phase transitions is driven by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. Here we study the formation of single- and half-quantum vortices during transition to the polar phase of He3 in the presence of a symmetry-breaking bias provided by the applied magnetic field. We find that vortex formation is suppressed exponentially when the length scale associated with the bias field becomes smaller than the Kibble-Zurek length. We thus demonstrate an experimentally feasible shortcut to adiabaticity - an important aspect for further understanding of phase transitions as well as for engineering applications such as quantum computers or simulators.