- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Letters

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Symmetry Rebreaking in an Effective Theory of Quantum Coarsening

Federico Balducci1,*, Anushya Chandran1,2, and Roderich Moessner1

  • *Contact author: fbalducci@pks.mpg.de
PDF

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 020402 – Published 13 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/q1lm-99z4

Abstract

We present a simple theory accounting for two central observations in a recent experiment on quantum coarsening and collective dynamics on a programmable quantum simulator [Manovitz et al., Nature (London) 638, 86 (2025).]: an apparent speeding up of the coarsening process as the phase transition is approached and persistent oscillations of the order parameter after quenches within the ordered phase. Our theory, based on the Hamiltonian structure of the equations of motion in the classical limit of the quantum model, finds a speeding up already deep within the ordered phase, with subsequent slowing down as the domain wall tension vanishes upon approaching the critical line. Further, the oscillations are captured within a mean-field treatment of the order parameter field. For quenches within the ordered phase, small spatially varying fluctuations in the initial mean field lead to a remarkable long-time effect, wherein the system dynamically destroys its long-range order and has to coarsen to re-establish it. We term this phenomenon symmetry rebreaking, as the resulting late-time magnetization can have a sign opposite to the initial magnetization.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (34)

  1. R. P. Feynman, Int. J. Theor. Phys. 21, 467 (1982).
  2. S. Lloyd, Science 273, 1073 (1996).
  3. R. Orús, Nat. Rev. Phys. 1, 538 (2019).
  4. M. C. Bañuls, Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 14, 173 (2023).
  5. N. D. Mermin, Rev. Mod. Phys. 51, 591 (1979).
  6. L. M. Pismen, Vortices in nonlinear Fields: From Liquid Crystals to Superfluids From Non-Equilibrium Patterns to Cosmic Strings (Oxford University Press, New York, 1999).
  7. W. F. Vinen and J. J. Niemela, J. Low Temp. Phys. 128, 167 (2002).
  8. F. Balducci, A. Gambassi, A. Lerose, A. Scardicchio, and C. Vanoni, Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 120601 (2022); Phys. Rev. B 107, 024306 (2023).
  9. J. Vodeb, M. Diego, Y. Vaskivskyi, L. Logaric, Y. Gerasimenko, V. Kabanov, B. Lipovsek, M. Topic, and D. Mihailovic, Nat. Commun. 15, 4836 (2024).
  10. W. Krinitsin, N. Tausendpfund, M. Rizzi, M. Heyl, and M. Schmitt, Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 240402 (2025).
  11. L. Pavešić, D. Jaschke, and S. Montangero, Phys. Rev. B 111, L140305 (2025).
  12. F. B. Trigueros, V. D. Naik, and M. Heyl, arXiv:2503.13664.
  13. T. I. Andersen, N. Astrakhantsev, A. H. Karamlou et al., Nature (London) 638, 79 (2025).
  14. T. Manovitz, S. H. Li, S. Ebadi et al., Nature (London) 638, 86 (2025).
  15. R. Haghshenas, E. Chertkov, M. Mills et al., arXiv:2503.20870.
  16. P. C. Hohenberg and B. I. Halperin, Rev. Mod. Phys. 49, 435 (1977).
  17. A. Bray, Adv. Phys. 43, 357 (1994).
  18. L. F. Cugliandolo, C.R. Phys. 16, 257 (2015).

  19. The term “quantum coarsening” was also used in studies of phase ordering in open quantum systems, where the dynamics is not unitary [20].

  20. C. Aron, G. Biroli, and L. F. Cugliandolo, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 050404 (2009); Phys. Rev. B 82, 174203 (2010).
  21. A. Lerose, J. Marino, B. Žunkovič, A. Gambassi, and A. Silva, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 130603 (2018); A. Lerose, B. Žunkovič, J. Marino, A. Gambassi, and A. Silva, Phys. Rev. B 99, 045128 (2019).
  22. T. W. Burkhardt and J. D. Gunton, Phys. Rev. A 9, 2802 (1974).
  23. B. Blaß and H. Rieger, Sci. Rep. 6, 38185 (2016).
  24. D. A. Abanin, W. De Roeck, and F. Huveneers, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 256803 (2015).
  25. T. Mori, T. Kuwahara, and K. Saito, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 120401 (2016).
  26. D. Abanin, W. De Roeck, W. W. Ho, and F. Huveneers, Commun. Math. Phys. 354, 809 (2017).
  27. W. De Roeck, F. Huveneers, and O. A. Prośniak, Commun. Math. Phys. 406, 155 (2025).
  28. N. Meshkov, A. Glick, and H. Lipkin, Nucl. Phys. 62, 199 (1965).
  29. B. Žunkovič, A. Silva, and M. Fabrizio, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 374, 20150160 (2016).
  30. A. Chandran, A. Nanduri, S. S. Gubser, and S. L. Sondhi, Phys. Rev. B 88, 024306 (2013).
  31. A. Maraga, A. Chiocchetta, A. Mitra, and A. Gambassi, Phys. Rev. E 92, 042151 (2015).
  32. A. Chiocchetta, A. Gambassi, S. Diehl, and J. Marino, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 135701 (2017).
  33. G. Giachetti, A. Solfanelli, and N. Defenu, arXiv:2511.08687.
  34. S.-H. Tsai, M. Krech, and D. Landau, Braz. J. Phys. 34, 2a (2004).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 020402– Published 13 January, 2026
  • Received 23 July 2025
  • Accepted 22 December 2025
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation