The Kibble-Zurek Mechanism in a Topological Phase Transition

Abstract

The Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) is generalized to a class of multi-level systems and applied to study the quenching dynamics of one-dimensional (1D) topological superconductors (TS) with open ends. Unlike the periodic boundary condition, the open boundary condition, that is crucial for the zero-mode Majorana states localized at the boundaries, requires to consider many coupled levels. which is ultimately related to the zero-mode Majorana modes. Our generalized KZM predictions agree well with the numerically exact results for the 1D TS.

5 pages, 2 figures; The last section completely rewritten with more relevant plots in Fig. 2 (Fig 3 removed)