Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 15, 2025

06:26
Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
7.4K
Nonadiabatic Phase Transition with Broken Chiral Symmetry
Bin Yan1,2, Vladimir Y Chernyak3, Wojciech H Zurek2
1Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
Physical Review Letters
|March 5, 2021
Summary
We found a way to separate quasiparticles in quantum spin chains using a time-dependent magnetic field. This method suppresses excitations on one sublattice, enabling large density separation.
Area of Science:
- Quantum Many-Body Physics
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Quantum Information Science
Background:
- Nonadiabatic quantum phase transitions occur in systems driven through critical points.
- Ising spin chains with time-dependent fields are models for studying quantum dynamics.
- Understanding quasiparticle behavior is crucial for quantum technologies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate nonadiabatic quantum phase transitions in a specific Ising spin chain model.
- To explore the dynamics of excitations in the presence of a time-dependent transverse field.
- To identify mechanisms for controlling quasiparticle populations.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of an Ising spin chain with a linearly time-dependent transverse field.
- Study of a system with two different spins per unit cell.
- Examination of gapless excitations near critical points.
Main Results:
- Excitations on one sublattice are exponentially suppressed in the nearly adiabatic regime.
- A coherent mechanism for quasiparticle density separation is identified.
- The system exhibits nonadiabatic transitions through critical points.
Conclusions:
- Coherent control over quasiparticle populations is achievable in this spin chain model.
- Exponential suppression of excitations offers a route to large density separation.
- The findings have implications for quantum simulation and information processing.
Related Concept Videos
Chirality
28.2K
Chirality is a term that describes the lack of mirror symmetry in an object. In other words, chiral objects cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, our feet are chiral, as the mirror image of the left foot, the right foot, cannot be superposed on the left foot.
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
28.2K
Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur
6.5K
Chirality is most prevalent in carbon-based tetrahedral compounds, but this important facet of molecular symmetry extends to sp3-hybridized nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur centers, including trivalent molecules with lone pairs. Here, the lone pair behaves as a functional group in addition to the other three substituents to form an analogous tetrahedral center that can be chiral.
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
6.5K
Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing
13.9K
Heating a crystalline solid increases the average energy of its atoms, molecules, or ions, and the solid gets hotter. At some point, the added energy becomes large enough to partially overcome the forces holding the molecules or ions of the solid in their fixed positions, and the solid begins the process of transitioning to the liquid state or melting. At this point, the temperature of the solid stops rising, despite the continual input of heat, and it remains constant until all of the solid is...
13.9K
Chirality in Nature
15.6K
Chirality is the most intriguing yet essential facet of nature, governing life’s biochemical processes and precision. It can be observed from a snail shell pattern in a macroscopic world to an amino acid, the minutest building block of life. Most of the snails around the world have right-coiled shells because of the intrinsic chirality in their genes. All the amino acids present in the human body exist in an enantiomerically pure state, except for glycine - the sole achiral amino acid.
15.6K
Prochirality
4.5K
The concept of prochirality leads to the nomenclature of the individual faces of a molecule and plays a crucial role in the enantioselective reaction. It is a concept where two or more achiral molecules react to produce chiral products. A typical process is the reaction of an achiral ketone to generate a chiral alcohol. Here, the achiral reactant reacts with an achiral reducing agent, sodium borohydride, to generate an equimolar mixture of the chiral enantiomers of the product. For example, an...
4.5K
Stereoisomerism of Cyclic Compounds
10.5K
In this lesson, we delve into the role of ring conformation and its stability, which determines the spatial arrangement and, consequently, the molecular symmetry and stereoisomerism of cyclic compounds. 1,2-Dimethylcyclohexane is used as a case study to evaluate the possible number of stereoisomers. Here, given the multiple (n = 2) chiral centers, there are 2n = 4 possible configurations that lack a plane of symmetry, as the ring skeleton exists in a non-planar chair conformation. In addition,...
10.5K

