Dynamical Detection of Topological Phase Transitions in Short-Lived Atomic Systems

Abstract

We demonstrate that dynamical probes provide direct means of detecting the topological phase transition (TPT) between conventional and topological phases, which would otherwise be difficult to access because of loss or heating processes. We propose to avoid such heating by rapidly quenching in and out of the short-lived topological phase across the transition that supports gapless excitations. Following the quench, the distribution of excitations in the final conventional phase carries signatures of the TPT. We apply this strategy to study the TPT into a Majorana-carrying topological phase predicted in one-dimensional spin-orbit-coupled Fermi gases with attractive interactions. The resulting spin-resolved momentum distribution, computed by self-consistently solving the time-dependent Bogoliubov--de Gennes equations, exhibits Kibble-Zurek scaling and Stückelberg oscillations characteristic of the TPT. We discuss parameter regimes where the TPT is experimentally accessible.

5 pages + Supplemental Material, 4 figures. Published version with revised title, abstract and introduction

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Experimental realization of a two-dimensional synthetic spin-orbit coupling in ultracold Fermi gases
• Nonadiabatic Landau-Zener-Stückelberg-Majorana transitions, dynamics, and interference
• Spin and Charge Signatures of Topological Superconductivity in Rashba Nanowires
• Topological Phase Detection in Rashba Nanowires with a Quantum Dot
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• Identifying Majorana bound states by tunneling shot-noise tomography
• Majorana bound states in a superconducting Rashba nanowire in the presence of antiferromagnetic order
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• All-electrical spectroscopy of topological phases in semiconductor-superconductor heterostructures
• Appropriate conditions to realize a $p$-wave superfluid state starting from a spin-orbit coupled $s$-wave superfluid Fermi gas