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 (AFM) 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.
Highlights
Heat generated as a result of the breakdown of an adiabatic process is one of the central concepts of thermodynamics
Across the transition point, the physics can be described by the quantum Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) and universal scaling laws for various quantities, such as the temporal onset of excitations, the density of defects and the heat, are predicted [3, 4]
The existence of scaling laws is not limited to non-equilibrium dynamics across a second-order quantum phase transition (QPT)
Summary
Heat generated as a result of the breakdown of an adiabatic process is one of the central concepts of thermodynamics. We prepare an initial condensate in the polar phase and slowly vary the quadratic Zeeman energy q by controlling magnetic and microwave fields to realize the two non-equilibrium processes.
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