@article {2363, title = {Non-equilibrium fixed points of coupled Ising models}, journal = {Phys. Rev. X }, volume = {10}, year = {2020}, month = {2/26/2020}, abstract = {

Driven-dissipative systems can exhibit non-equilibrium phenomena that are absent in their equilibrium counterparts. However, phase transitions present in these systems generically exhibit an effectively classical equilibrium behavior in spite of their quantum non-equilibrium origin. In this paper, we show that multicritical points in driven-dissipative systems can give rise to genuinely non-equilibrium behavior. We investigate a non-equilibrium driven-dissipative model of interacting bosons that exhibits two distinct phase transitions: one from a high- to a low-density phase---reminiscent of a liquid-gas transition---and another to an antiferromagnetic phase. Each phase transition is described by the Ising universality class characterized by an (emergent or microscopic) Z2 symmetry. They, however, coalesce at a multicritical point giving rise to a non-equilibrium model of coupled Ising-like order parameters described by a Z2\×Z2 symmetry. Using a dynamical renormalization-group approach, we show that a pair of non-equilibrium fixed points (NEFPs) emerge that govern the long-distance critical behavior of the system. We elucidate various exotic features of these NEFPs. In particular, we show that a generic continuous scale invariance at criticality is reduced to a discrete scale invariance. This further results in complex-valued critical exponents, spiraling phase boundaries, and a complex Liouvillian gap even close to the phase transition. As direct evidence of the non-equilibrium nature of the NEFPs, we show that the fluctuation-dissipation relation is violated at all scales, leading to an effective temperature that becomes \"hotter\" and \"hotter\" at longer and longer wavelengths. Finally, we argue that this non-equilibrium behavior can be observed in cavity arrays with cross-Kerr nonlinearities.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.10.011039}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.02569}, author = {Jeremy T. Young and Alexey V. Gorshkov and Michael Foss-Feig and Mohammad F. Maghrebi} }