This is part of a seminar series for students and researchers interested in theoretical physics and applied mathematics. Listen to Jeff Maki (Università di Trento) during the seminar "False Vacuum Decay in the Monitored Quantum Ising Mode".
Metastability is a common phenomena associated with systems near a first order phase transition where a system resides in a phase that does not minimize the (free-) energy. Although there are mundane examples like super-cooled water, the most famous example of metastability is the false vacuum decay of the universe proposed by Sydney Coleman. In this talk we examine the false vacuum decay physics in the paradigmatic one-dimensional quantum Ising model subject to a weak continuous measurement of the local magnetization. The presence of the measurement leads to a competition between the unitary measurement which nucleates bubbles of the true vacuum and the measurements that heat up the system. Using numerical methods and stochastic quantum trajectories, we are able to characterize the false vacuum decay and the thermalization of the system. This approach allows us to examine the false vacuum decay from the point of view of the magnetization, and the entanglement entropy.
Participate on campus or via Zoom.
On campus: PJ lecture hall
Zoom link: https://gu-se.zoom.us/j/64681043702