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Phase transitions

When Ising met Kibble–Zurek

Nature Physics volume 19, pages 1392–1393 (2023)Cite this article

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When a system is driven across a second-order phase transition, defects can form because it cannot respond quickly enough to the new conditions. The Kibble–Zurek mechanism explains this physics, and has now been invoked for Ising-type domains.

The concepts of critical fluctuations and critical slowing down appear naturally from the Landau theory of phase transitions. They imply that, near a second-order phase transition, the fluctuations in the order parameter become large and slow, and this limits the system’s ability to respond to external perturbations, including the one that is driving the phase transition. This notion can apply to everyday materials, thereby linking the size of domains to the quench rate at which the system is driven across a phase transition. Now, writing in Nature Physics, Kai Du and collaborators interpret the formation of structural Ising domains in terms of this so-called Kibble–Zurek mechanism1.

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Fig. 1: Kibble–Zurek roadmap in condensed matter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Experimental Physics V, Center for Electronic Correlations and Magnetism, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany

    István Kézsmárki

  2. University Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Institut Néel, Grenoble, France

    Andrés Cano

Authors
  1. István Kézsmárki
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  2. Andrés Cano
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Correspondence to István Kézsmárki or Andrés Cano.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Kézsmárki, I., Cano, A. When Ising met Kibble–Zurek. Nat. Phys. 19, 1392–1393 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-02231-z

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