Speaker
Description
Metastable states appear across many areas of physics, from condensed matter to cosmology. Their relaxation is described by the semi-classical 'critical bubble theory', developed more than 50 years ago. Despite its broad applicability, the quantum version of the theory has little experimental support, and understanding the relaxation of metastable states in quantum many-body systems remains a challenge.
I will present our recent progress in studying metastable-state decay in two-dimensional quantum spin systems. By combining tensor-network simulations with semiclassical field-theory calculations, we investigate false-vacuum decay through the nucleation and subsequent growth of bubbles of the competing phase. I will discuss how this approach connects microscopic many-body dynamics with the predictions of critical-bubble theory, and conclude with the prospects for using quantum simulators to explore these processes experimentally.