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Nonequilibrium Properties of Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless Phase Transitions
C Klöckner1, C Karrasch1, D M Kennes2,3
1Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institut für Mathematische Physik, Mendelssohnstrae 3, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany.
Physical Review Letters
|October 16, 2020
Summary
Researchers used a new renormalization-group method to study nonequilibrium phase transitions. They found electric fields can destroy and then restore charge order, leading to unusual current flow.
Area of Science:
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Quantum Mechanics
- Statistical Mechanics
Background:
- Understanding nonequilibrium phase transitions is crucial for many-body systems.
- Interplay of fluctuations and ordering in low dimensions is complex.
- Metal-insulator transitions are fundamental phenomena in condensed matter.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate nonequilibrium phase transitions in infinite lattice models.
- Analyze the behavior of spinless interacting fermions driven by an electric field.
- Compute the nonequilibrium phase diagram and understand emergent phenomena.
Main Methods:
- Employed a novel, unbiased renormalization-group approach.
- Studied a prototypical model of interacting fermions coupled to electronic baths.
- Applied a longitudinal static electric field to drive the system out of equilibrium.
Main Results:
- Computed the nonequilibrium phase diagram, revealing nonmonotonic phase boundary dependence on electric field strength.
- Observed destruction of charge order by small electric fields, followed by its reemergence at higher fields due to many-body localization.
- Demonstrated counter-intuitive current flow opposite to the electric field direction.
Conclusions:
- The study provides insights into complex nonequilibrium phenomena in interacting fermion systems.
- Many-body Wannier-Stark localization plays a key role in reestablishing charge order.
- The observed steady state resembles equilibrium distributions with effective negative temperatures.
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