%0 Journal Article
%T Spontaneous creation of Kibble-Zurek solitons in a Bose-Einstein condensate
%A Giacomo Lamporesi
%A Simone Donadello
%A Simone Serafini
%A Franco Dalfovo
%A Gabriele Ferrari
%J Physics
%D 2013
%I arXiv
%R 10.1038/nphys2734
%X When a system crosses a second-order phase transition on a finite timescale, spontaneous symmetry breaking can cause the development of domains with independent order parameters, which then grow and approach each other creating boundary defects. This is known as Kibble-Zurek mechanism. Originally introduced in cosmology, it applies both to classical and quantum phase transitions, in a wide variety of physical systems. Here we report on the spontaneous creation of solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates via the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. We measure the power-law dependence of defects number with the quench time, and provide a check of the Kibble-Zurek scaling with the sonic horizon. These results provide a promising test bed for the determination of critical exponents in Bose-Einstein condensates.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.4523v1