Non-equilibrium Quantum Phase Transition
What happens when a quantum critical point is affected by noise? An intuitive guess would be that the external noise defines an effective temperature. This effective temperature would introduce a well defined energy scale in the problem and break the scale invariance of the quantum critical point. On the contrary, it was recently found that certain types of noise can induce a non-equilibrium quantum critical state. This state is out-of-equilibrium because of the continuous energy flow introduced by the noise, but it still retains the scale invariant behavior typical of critical points.
Read more about this topic: Quantum Critical Point
Famous quotes containing the words quantum, phase and/or transition:
“But how is one to make a scientist understand that there is something unalterably deranged about differential calculus, quantum theory, or the obscene and so inanely liturgical ordeals of the precession of the equinoxes.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)
“This is certainly not the place for a discourse about what festivals are for. Discussions on this theme were plentiful during that phase of preparation and on the whole were fruitless. My experience is that discussion is fruitless. What sets forth and demonstrates is the sight of events in action, is living through these events and understanding them.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)
“The most remarkable aspect of the transition we are living through is not so much the passage from want to affluence as the passage from labor to leisure.... Leisure contains the future, it is the new horizon.... The prospect then is one of unremitting labor to bequeath to future generations a chance of founding a society of leisure that will overcome the demands and compulsions of productive labor so that time may be devoted to creative activities or simply to pleasure and happiness.”
—Henri Lefebvre (b. 1901)