We consider two different collective spin systems subjected to strong dissipation -- on the same scale as interaction strengths and external fields -- and show that either continuous or discontinuous dissipative quantum phase transitions can occur as the dissipation strength is varied. First, we consider a well known model of cooperative resonance fluorescence that can exhibit a second-order quantum phase transition, and analyze the entanglement properties near the critical point. Next, we examine a dissipative version of the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick interacting collective spin model, where we find that either first- or second-order quantum phase transitions can occur, depending only on the ratio of the interaction and external field parameters. We give detailed results and interpretation for the steady state entanglement in the vicinity of the critical point, where it reaches a maximum. For the first-order transition we find that the semiclassical steady states exhibit a region of bistability.
We investigate the fate of dissipative phase transitions in quantum many-body systems when the individual constituents are qudits (d-level systems) instead of qubits. As an example system, we employ a permutation- invariant XY model of N infinite-range interacting d-level spins (Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model) undergoing individual and collective dissipation. In the mean-field limit, we identify a dissipative phase transition, whose critical point is independent of d after a suitable rescaling of parameters. When the decay rates between all adjacent levels are identical and d ≥ 4, the critical point expands, in terms of the ratio between dissipation and interaction strengths, to a critical region in which two phases coexist and which increases as d grows. In addition, a larger d leads to a more pronounced change in spin expectation values at the critical point. Numerical investigations for finite N reveal symmetry breaking signatures in the Liouvillian spectrum at the phase transition. The phase transition is furthermore marked by maximum entanglement negativity and a significant purity change of the steady state, which become more pronounced as d increases. Considering qudits instead of qubits thus opens new perspectives on accessing rich phase diagrams in open many-body systems.
We propose a cavity QED setup which implements a dissipative Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model---an interacting collective spin system. By varying the external model parameters the system can be made to undergo both first- and second-order quantum phase transitions, which are signified by dramatic changes in cavity output field properties, such as the probe laser transmission spectrum. The steady-state entanglement between pairs of atoms is shown to peak at the critical points and can be experimentally determined by suitable measurements on the cavity output field. The entanglement dynamics also exhibits pronounced variations in the vicinities of the phase transitions.
We study the
XY model with infinite-range interactions (Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model) in the presence of dissipation from spontaneous decay. We show that independent and collective decay lead to qualitatively different phase transitions of the steady state, even though the phase boundary is the same. Independent decay leads to a second-order phase transition to a ferromagnet, while collective decay leads to a first-order transition to a time-dependent oscillatory phase. Then we show that the addition of a drive leads to infinite spin squeezing for collective decay in the thermodynamic limit. Our results can be experimentally seen in trapped-ion and cavity-QED experiments.
Driven-dissipative collective spin systems can host several long-lived metastable states; rare switching between them governs slow relaxation and first-order dissipative phase transitions associated with changes in the dominant stationary state. In the companion Letter [arXiv:2604.15091], we introduced a quantum instanton framework based on exact quasiprobability dynamics to describe this switching and illustrated it with a minimal model possessing a simplifying symmetry. Here we develop its numerical implementation, combining collocation and shooting methods, and apply it to two microscopically motivated systems: the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model with purely collective dissipation and the cooperative resonance fluorescence with collective and local dissipation. By determining the leading exponential scaling of switching rates between metastable attractors, we predict the stationary magnetization, the first-order dissipative phase-transition point, and the exponential scaling of slow relaxation rates. These predictions agree with quantum master-equation calculations and an exact analytical result for the second model without dephasing. We also examine how the choice of quasiprobability representation affects numerical convergence and find that the alternative semiclassical Wigner approach, based on Gaussian truncation, has varying accuracy across models and parameter regimes. These results substantiate the framework's applicability to experimentally relevant collective spin systems with both collective and local dissipation.
We investigate the fate of dissipative phase transitions in quantum many-body systems when the individual constituents are qudits (
d-level systems) instead of qubits. As an example system, we employ a permutation-invariant
XY model of
N infinite-range interacting
d-level spins undergoing individual and collective dissipation. In the mean-field limit, we identify a dissipative phase transition, whose critical point is independent of
d after a suitable rescaling of parameters. When the decay rates between all adjacent levels are identical and $d\ensuremath{\ge}4$, the critical point expands, in terms of the ratio between dissipation and interaction strengths, to a critical region in which two phases coexist and which increases as
d grows. In addition, a larger
d leads to a more pronounced change in spin expectation values at the critical point. Numerical investigations for finite
N reveal symmetry-breaking signatures in the Liouvillian spectrum at the phase transition. The phase transition is furthermore marked by maximum entanglement negativity and a significant purity change of the steady state, which become more pronounced as
d increases. Considering qudits instead of qubits thus opens new perspectives on accessing rich phase diagrams in open many-body systems.