Fermion quantum criticality far from equilibrium

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Mittal, Rohan, Zander, Tom, Lang, Johannes, Diehl, Sebastian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Mittal, Rohan
Zander, Tom
Lang, Johannes
Diehl, Sebastian
author_facet Mittal, Rohan
Zander, Tom
Lang, Johannes
Diehl, Sebastian
contents Driving a quantum system out of equilibrium while preserving its subtle quantum mechanical correlations on large scales presents a major challenge, both fundamentally and for technological applications. At its core, this challenge is pinpointed by the question of how quantum effects can persist at asymptotic scales, analogous to quantum critical points in equilibrium. In this work, we construct such a scenario using fermions as building blocks. These fermions undergo an absorbing-to-absorbing state transition between two topologically distinct and quantum-correlated dark states. Starting from a microscopic, interacting Lindbladian, we derive an effective Lindblad-Keldysh field theory in which critical fermions couple to a bosonic bath with hydrodynamic fluctuations associated with particle number conservation. A key feature of this field theory is an emergent symmetry that protects the purity of the fermions' state even in the presence of the thermal bath. We quantitatively characterise the critical point using a leading-order expansion around the upper critical dimension, thereby establishing the first non-equilibrium universality class of fermions. The symmetry protection mechanism, which exhibits parallels to the problem of directed percolation, suggests a pathway toward a broader class of robust, universal quantum phenomena in fermionic systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_14318
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Fermion quantum criticality far from equilibrium
Mittal, Rohan
Zander, Tom
Lang, Johannes
Diehl, Sebastian
Statistical Mechanics
Driving a quantum system out of equilibrium while preserving its subtle quantum mechanical correlations on large scales presents a major challenge, both fundamentally and for technological applications. At its core, this challenge is pinpointed by the question of how quantum effects can persist at asymptotic scales, analogous to quantum critical points in equilibrium. In this work, we construct such a scenario using fermions as building blocks. These fermions undergo an absorbing-to-absorbing state transition between two topologically distinct and quantum-correlated dark states. Starting from a microscopic, interacting Lindbladian, we derive an effective Lindblad-Keldysh field theory in which critical fermions couple to a bosonic bath with hydrodynamic fluctuations associated with particle number conservation. A key feature of this field theory is an emergent symmetry that protects the purity of the fermions' state even in the presence of the thermal bath. We quantitatively characterise the critical point using a leading-order expansion around the upper critical dimension, thereby establishing the first non-equilibrium universality class of fermions. The symmetry protection mechanism, which exhibits parallels to the problem of directed percolation, suggests a pathway toward a broader class of robust, universal quantum phenomena in fermionic systems.
title Fermion quantum criticality far from equilibrium
topic Statistical Mechanics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.14318