Superradiant phase transitions play a fundamental role in understanding the mechanism of collective light–matter interaction at the quantum level. Here we investigate multiple superradiant phases and phase transitions with different symmetry-breaking patterns in a two-mode V-type Dicke model. Interestingly, we show that there exists a quadruple point where one normal phase, one global symmetry-breaking superradiant phase, and two local symmetry-breaking superradiant phases meet. Such a global phase results from the phase competition between two local superradiant phases and cannot occur in the standard Λ- and Ξ-type three-level configurations in quantum optics. Moreover, we exhibit a sequential first-order quantum phase transition from one local to the global again to the other local superradiant phase. Our study opens up a perspective of exploring multilevel quantum critical phenomena with global symmetry breaking.
Superradiant phase transitions play a fundamental role in understanding the mechanism of collective light–matter interaction at the quantum level. Here we investigate multiple superradiant phases and phase transitions with different symmetry-breaking patterns in a two-mode V-type Dicke model. Interestingly, we show that there exists a quadruple point where one normal phase, one global symmetry-breaking superradiant phase, and two local symmetry-breaking superradiant phases meet. Such a global phase results from the phase competition between two local superradiant phases and cannot occur in the standard Λ- and Ξ-type three-level configurations in quantum optics. Moreover, we exhibit a sequential first-order quantum phase transition from one local to the global again to the other local superradiant phase. Our study opens up a perspective of exploring multilevel quantum critical phenomena with global symmetry breaking.
Abstract Phase transitions are both thermodynamically and quantum-mechanically ubiquitous in nature and laboratories, and their understanding remains one of the most active issues in modern physics and related disciplines. The Landau theory provides a general framework to describe phenomenologically phase transitions by introducing order parameters and associated symmetry breaking. This theory is also taken as a starting point to explore critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions in the renormalization group, which provides a complete theoretical description of behaviors close to critical points. In this context, the microscopic mechanism of phase transitions remains unclear. In this study, we explore the microscopic mechanism of the superradiant phase transition in the quantum Rabi model (QRM). First, we perform a diagonalization operation in an operator space to obtain three fundamental patterns, denoted as λ 1 , λ 2 , and λ 3 , involved in the QRM. Then, we explicitly analyze the energy evolutions of these patterns with increasing coupling strength. The observed characteristic behaviors reveal the microscopic mechanism of the superradiant phase transition as a consequence of competition between patterns due to different phase relations. In other words, with increasing coupling strength, the pattern λ 1 drives the phase transition, the pattern λ 2 exhibits a similar response speed but less energy compensation than the pattern λ 1 , and the pattern λ 3 exhibits a slow response speed but plays a key role in the balance between it and the pattern λ 1 , which stabilizes the new phase. This type of dissecting mechanism explains why and how the superradiant phase transition occurs in the QRM and paves the way for exploring the microscopic mechanism of phase transitions that occur frequently in nature.
Frustration occurs when a system cannot find a lowest-energy configuration due to conflicting constraints. We show that a frustrated superradiant phase transition occurs when the ground-state superradiance of cavity fields due to local light-matter interactions cannot simultaneously minimize the positive photon hopping energies. We solve the Dicke trimer model on a triangle motif with both negative and positive hopping energies and show that the latter results in a sixfold degenerate ground-state manifold in which the translational symmetry is spontaneously broken. In the frustrated superradiant phase, we find that two sets of diverging time and fluctuation scales coexist, one governed by the mean-field critical exponent and another by a novel critical exponent. The latter is associated with the fluctuation in the difference of local order parameters and gives rise to site-dependent photon number critical exponents, which may serve as an experimental probe for the frustrated superradiant phase. We provide a qualitative explanation for the emergence of unconventional critical scalings and demonstrate that they are generic properties of the frustrated superradiant phase at the hand of a one-dimensional Dicke lattice with an odd number of sites. The mechanism for the frustrated superradiant phase transition discovered here applies to any lattice geometries where the antiferromagnetic ordering of neighboring sites are incompatible and therefore our work paves the way toward the exploration of frustrated phases of coupled light and matter.
The Dicke model (DM) serves as a paradigm for understanding collective light-matter interactions. We introduce the chiral Dicke model, a generalization where an atomic ensemble couples to a two-mode cavity via chiral interactions. Unlike the standard DM, the chiral DM is endowed with an inherent continuous U(1) symmetry associated with angular momentum conservation. The ground-state phase diagram and the associated quantum phase transitions are charted out, revealing a U(1)-broken superradiant phase that spans a broad parameter space. We demonstrate that the spectrum of quantum fluctuations is highly tunable in both the symmetric and broken phases. Strikingly, our calculations reveal that the system exhibits `multiversality', where distinct universality classes govern the transition between the same two phases. In particular, along a special line in parameter space, the dynamical critical exponent for the normal-superradiant phase transition changes from zν=1 to zν=1/2. Our work establishes the chiral Dicke model as a powerful platform to realize novel quantum phases and multiversal critical phenomena in light-matter coupled systems.
We investigate superradiant quantum phase transitions in a Dicke trimer model consisting of two types of hoppings, i.e., photon hoppings and atom hoppings. In the superradiant regime, the system can exist in two distinct phases: normal and frustrated superradiant phases, which are governed by both types of hoppings. Particularly, the interplay between these hoppings gives rise to interesting effects, such as triggering superradiance with much lower coupling strengths when both hoppings exhibit the same tendency. In contrast, with opposite tendencies, the competition between hoppings leads to a first-order phase transition between two different superradiant phases with translational symmetry broken. These findings enable the system to undergo a sequence of transitions across three phases by changing the coupling strength. Our work provides deep insights into competing interactions and quantum phase transitions in multi-cavity systems with geometric structures.
Understanding how frustration and symmetry breaking shape collective behavior is a central problem in quantum many-body systems. In this work, we investigate this problem in large one- and two-dimensional arrays of coupled Dicke models on a periodic lattice, where strong light-matter coupling gives rise to a superradiant phase and competition between neighboring order parameters induces spontaneous translational symmetry breaking. Such Dicke lattice models constitute a fundamentally new class of quantum many-body systems, as they simultaneously realize the thermodynamic limit associated with the lattice size and an intrinsic thermodynamic limit arising from collective on-site interactions with quantum emitters. We show that frustration drives photonic density-wave ordering, and that the resulting broken periodicity can be predicted from the excitation spectrum of the symmetric phase, without requiring computationally prohibitive thermodynamic energy minimization. Furthermore, we demonstrate that an emergent Nambu-Goldstone mode arises near the critical point in a one-dimensional chain despite the presence of only discrete symmetry, and uncover the mechanism that enables this otherwise forbidden gapless excitation. We also find quasi-periodic ordering in the superradiant phase, reminiscent of quasicrystals, and demonstrate that synthetic magnetic flux provides a powerful knob to control the nature of translational symmetry breaking. Our results establish a new direction in quantum many-body physics where the coexistence of local and global thermodynamic limits gives rise to unconventional symmetry breaking and emergent collective behavior.
In this doctoral thesis, the thermodynamic phases und phase transitions of a generalised Dicke model are studied and characterised. Both, finite and vanishing temperatures are considered. The Dicke model of quantum optics describes collective phenomena which occur when light interacts with a many-atom system. In the thermodynamic limit, a so-called Hepp–Lieb superradiant phase transition sets in. A superradiant phase develops for low temperatures or strong coupling between light and atoms, which is characterised by a macroscopic excitation of the light field and a spontaneous, collective polarisation of the atoms. This thesis discusses a generalised version of the Dicke model, which is described by a quantum mechanical system consisting of three-level atoms in Lambda-configuration and two modes of a resonator. By means of the Holstein–Primakoff transformation, the Hamiltonian of this system is written in terms of four interacting, non-linear oscillators, which can be linearised in the thermodynamic limit, yielding the ground-state energy as well as the low-energy excitations. The phase diagram consisting of two superradiant phases separated by continuous and first-order phase transitions is derived. In order to clarify the question whether or not the superradiant phase transition of this generalised Dicke model can be observed experimentally for real atoms, the significance of the diamagnetic term is discussed. In contrast to the original Dicke model, superradiant phase transitions are possible in principle. This is due to the first-order phase transitions. In addition, a no-go theorem for continuous superradiant phase transitions is presented. The argument is based on the Thomas–Reiche–Kuhn sum rule. Last, we study the superradiant phase transition of the generalised Dicke model at finite temperatures. Therefore, the partition sum is computed and analysed in the thermodynamic limit using Laplace’s method. At finite temperatures, the properties of the phase diagram and phases remain. However, here all phase transitions are of first order.