Seminar
Universal dynamics across a phase transition: from condensed matter to quantum computing
Speaker: Adolfo del Campo (University of Luxembourg)
When a quantum phase transition is crossed in finite time, the breakdown of adiabatic dynamics leads to the formation of topological defects, such as domain walls in spin systems and vortices in superfluids. The average density of defects scales with the quench rate following a universal power-law predicted by the Kibble- Zurek mechanism. Physics beyond the Kibble-Zurek mechanism can be probed by characterizing the full counting statistics of topological defects and provides useful heuristics for adiabatic quantum computation. Its study can be used to benchmark the performance of a quantum processor, as we show by analyzing the experimental data from a D-Wave quantum annealer.