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Spontaneous Quantum Turbulence in a Newborn Bose-Einstein Condensate via the Kibble-Zurek Mechanism

Seong-Ho Shinn1,*, Matteo Massaro1,†, Mithun Thudiyangal2,3, and Adolfo del Campo1,4

  • *Contact author: seongho.shin@uni.lu
  • †Contact author: matteo.massaro@uni.lu
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 020402 – Published 7 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/b16v-hwp2

Abstract

The Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) predicts the spontaneous formation of topological defects in a continuous phase transition driven at a finite rate. We propose the generation of spontaneous quantum turbulence (SQT) via the KZM during Bose-Einstein condensation induced by a thermal quench. Using numerical simulations of the stochastic projected Gross-Pitaevskii equation in two spatial dimensions, we describe the formation of a newborn Bose-Einstein condensate proliferated by quantum vortices. We establish the nonequilibrium universality of SQT through the Kibble-Zurek and Kolmogorov scaling of the incompressible kinetic energy.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 020402– Published 7 July, 2026
  • Received 20 July 2025
  • Revised 5 December 2025
  • Accepted 28 May 2026
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