Diel, Sebastian

Friday Feb 7, 2013
Time: 11:00
Place: ETH Science City, HIT H 51
Host:  Sebastian Huber

Dynamical critical phenomena in driven-dissipative systems

Sebastian Diehl
Universität Innsbruck, Austria

We explore the nature of the Bose condensation transition in driven open quantum systems, such as exciton-polariton condensates. Using a functional renormalization group approach formulated in the Keldysh framework, we characterize the dynamical critical behavior that governs decoherence and an effective thermalization of the low frequency dynamics. We identify a critical exponent special to the driven system, showing that it defines a new dynamical universality class. Hence critical points in driven systems lie beyond the standard dynamical classification of equilibrium phase transitions. We show how the new critical exponent can be probed in experiments with driven cold atomic systems and exciton-polariton condensates.