Parity-time symmetry breaking in spin chains

We investigate nonequilibrium phase transitions in classical Heisenberg spin chains associated with spontaneous breaking of parity-time (PT) symmetry of the system under the action of Slonczewski spin-transfer torque (STT) modeled by an applied imaginary magnetic field. We reveal the STT-driven PT s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. B 2018-05, Vol.97 (20), Article 201411
Main Authors: Galda, Alexey, Vinokur, Valerii M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Broken symmetry
Chains
Ising model
Magnetic fields
Nonconservative forces
Parity
Partitions (mathematics)
Phase transitions
Spin dynamics
Symmetry
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Summary:We investigate nonequilibrium phase transitions in classical Heisenberg spin chains associated with spontaneous breaking of parity-time (PT) symmetry of the system under the action of Slonczewski spin-transfer torque (STT) modeled by an applied imaginary magnetic field. We reveal the STT-driven PT symmetry-breaking phase transition between the regimes of precessional and exponentially damped spin dynamics and show that its several properties can be derived from the distribution of zeros of the system's partition function, the approach first introduced by Yang and Lee for studying equilibrium phase transitions in Ising spin chains. The physical interpretation of imaginary magnetic field as describing the action of nonconservative forces opens the possibility of direct observations of Lee-Yang zeros in nonequilibrium physical systems.
ISSN:2469-9950
2469-9969
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.97.201411