Quantum criticality in the nonunitary dynamics of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mo>(</mml:mo><mml:mn>2</mml:mn><mml:mo>+</mml:mo><mml:mn>1</mml:mn><mml:mo>)</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math>-dimensional free fermions

Abstract

Quantum criticality, which exhibits universal features such as nontrivial collective fluctuations, is one of the central topics in statistical and condensed matter physics. Here, the authors design a class of nonunitary random dynamics of free fermions that robustly produces novel critical steady states. The emergent quantum criticality is numerically confirmed for the 2+1 dimensional case, and the proposed analytical interpretation can be easily extended to any dimensions. Their discoveries are potentially helpful to understand quantum critical phenomenon in nonequilibrium dynamics.

Topics & Concepts