Search

Seeking new order parameters and the related broken symmetry and studying their relationship with phase transition have been important topics in condensed matter physics. Here, by using spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we confirm the helical spin texture caused by spin-layer locking in the nodal region in the cuprate superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+ δ and discover the anisotropy of spin polarizations at nodes along Γ – X and Γ – Y directions. The breaking of C 4 rotational symmetry in electronic spin texture may give deeper insights into understanding the ground state of cuprate superconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding phase transitions in quantum matters constitutes a significant part of present day condensed matter physics. Quantum phase transitions concern ground state properties of many-body systems, and hence their signatures are expected to be pronounced in low-energy states. Here we report signature of a quantum critical point manifested in strongly out-of-equilibrium states with finite energy density with respect to the ground state and extensive (subsystem) entanglement entropy, generated by an external pulse. These non-equilibrium states are evidently completely disordered (e.g., paramagnetic in case of a magnetic ordering transition). The pulse is applied by switching a coupling of the Hamiltonian from an initial value (λI) to a final value (λF) for sufficiently long time and back again. The signature appears as non-analyticities (kinks) in the energy absorbed by the system from the pulse as a function of λF at critical-points (i.e., at values of λF corresponding to static critical-points of the system). As one excites higher and higher eigenstates of the final Hamiltonian H(λF) by increasing the pulse height , the non-analyticity grows stronger monotonically with it. This implies adding contributions from higher eigenstates help magnifying the non-analyticity, indicating strong imprint of the critical-point on them. Our findings are grounded on exact analytical results derived for Ising and XY chains in transverse field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]