Description

The central goal of this project is to establish, in a concerted experimental and theoretical effort, universal quantum many-body dynamics in one spatial dimension. We will focus specifically on one-dimensional spin systems, which in equilibrium possess a zero-temperature critical point and are experimentally realisable. We will resolve the conjecture that in these systems critical phenomena far from equilibrium exist, which imply universal scaling behaviour in space and time within a certain time window of the evolution. Such phenomena are related to nonthermal fixed points. For intermediate times there is also an intimate connection to non- linear wave dynamics where in specific cases the time evolution is characterised by non-linear attractors. Our long-term goal is to experimentally as well as theoretically clarify the structure of critical states reachable in out-of-equilibrium evolution in low-dimensional systems.