Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality in a one-dimensional polariton condensate

Year: 2022

Authors: Fontaine Q., Squizzato D., Baboux F., Amelio I., Lemaotre A., Morassi M., Sagnes I., Le Gratiet L., Harouri A., Wouters M., Carusotto I., Amo A., Richard M., Minguzzi A., Canet L., Ravets S., Bloch J.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Paris Saclay, Ctr Nanosci & Nanotechnol C2N, CNRS, Palaiseau, France; Univ Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France; CNRS, Lab Phys & Modelisat Milieux Condenses LPMMC, Grenoble, France; Univ Roma La Sapienza, Dipartimento Fis, Rome, Italy; Univ Roma La Sapienza, Consiglio Nazl Ric, Ist Sistemi Complessi, Rome, Italy; Univ Paris, Lab Mat & Phenomenes Quant, CNRS UMR 7162, Paris, France; Univ Trento, INO CNR BEC Ctr, Povo, Italy; Univ Trento, Dipartimento Fis, Povo, Italy; Univ Antwerp, TQC, Antwerp, Belgium; Univ Lille, CNRS, UMR 8523 PhLAM Phys Lasers Atomes & Mol, Lille, France; Univ Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Inst Neel, Grenoble, France.

Abstract: Revealing universal behaviours is a hallmark of statistical physics. Phenomena such as the stochastic growth of crystalline surfaces(1) and of interfaces in bacterial colonies(2), and spin transport in quantum magnets(3-6) all belong to the same universality class, despite the great plurality of physical mechanisms they involve at the microscopic level. More specifically, in all these systems, space-time correlations show power-law scalings characterized by universal critical exponents. This universality stems from a common underlying effective dynamics governed by the nonlinear stochastic Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation(7). Recent theoretical works have suggested that this dynamics also emerges in the phase of out-of-equilibrium systems showing macroscopic spontaneous coherence(8-17). Here we experimentally demonstrate that the evolution of the phase in a driven-dissipative one-dimensional polariton condensate falls in the KPZ universality class. Our demonstration relies on a direct measurement of KPZ space-time scaling laws(18,19), combined with a theoretical analysis that reveals other key signatures of this universality class. Our results highlight fundamental physical differences between out-of-equilibrium condensates and their equilibrium counterparts, and open a paradigm for exploring universal behaviours in driven open quantum systems.

Journal/Review: NATURE

Volume: 608 (7924)      Pages from: 687  to: 793

More Information: We thank V. Goblot, D. Vajner and A. Toor for their assistance in the early development of the experiment. This work was supported by the Paris Ile-de-France Region in the framework of DIM SIRTEQ, the French RENATECH network, the H2020-FETFLAG project PhoQus (820392), the QUANTERA project Interpol (ANR-QUAN-0003-05), the European Research Council via the project ARQADIA (949730), EmergenTopo (865151) and RG.BIO (785932), the French government through the Programme Investissement d’Avenir (I-SITE ULNE / ANR-16-IDEX-0004 ULNE) managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche, and the Labex CEMPI (ANR-11-LABX-0007). L.C. acknowledges support from ANR (grant ANR-18-CE92-0019) and from Institut Universitaire de France.
KeyWords: Computer Simulation; Crystallization; Models, Chemical; Physics; condensate; evolution; evolutionary theory; quantum mechanics; stochastic model; theoretical study; chemical model; computer simulation; crystallization; physics; procedures
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05001-8

Citations: 41
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