Observation of heat scaling across a first-order quantum phase transition in a spinor condensate
Open Access
- 19 February 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by IOP Publishing in New Journal of Physics
- Vol. 23 (3), 033038
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/abe812
Abstract
Heat generated as a result of the breakdown of an adiabatic process is one of the central concepts of thermodynamics. In isolated systems, the heat can be defined as an energy increase due to transitions between distinct energy levels. Across a second-order quantum phase transition (QPT), the heat is predicted theoretically to exhibit a power-law scaling, but it is a significant challenge for an experimental observation. In addition, it remains elusive whether a power-law scaling of heat can exist for a first-order QPT. Here we experimentally observe a power-law scaling of heat in a spinor condensate when a system is linearly driven from a polar phase to an antiferromagnetic phase across a first-order QPT. We experimentally evaluate the heat generated during two non-equilibrium processes by probing the atom number on a hyperfine energy level. The experimentally measured scaling exponents agree well with our numerical simulation results. Our work therefore opens a new avenue to experimentally and theoretically exploring the properties of heat in non-equilibrium dynamics.Keywords
Funding Information
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (11974201)
- Frontier Science Center for Quantum Information of the Ministry of Education of China
- The National Thousand-Young-Talents Program
- The Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences
- National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFA0301902)
- The start-up fund from Tsinghua University
- the Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program
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