Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking Induced by Quantum Monitoring

LUIS PEDRO GARCÍA-PINTOS; D. TIELAS; ADOLFO DE CAMPO

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2019

0031-9007

Spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) is responsible for structure  formation in scenarios ranging from condensed matter to cosmology. SSB is broadly understood in terms of perturbations to the Hamiltonian governing the dynamics or to the state of the system. We study SSB due to quantum monitoring of a system via continuous quantum measurements. The acquisition of information during the measurement process induces a measurement back-action that seeds SSB. In this setting, by monitoring different observables, an observer can tailor the topology of the vacuum manifold, the pattern of symmetry breaking and the nature of the resulting domains and topological defects.