Quantum Dissipative Paraelectricity

Abstract:Whether a quantum system with a double-well effective potential undergoes spontaneous symmetry breaking depends not only on the potential landscape but also on the kinetics and the coupling with additional degrees of freedom. Here we introduce a quasi-exactly solvable model to study this problem in the context of ferroelectrics, with results that apply to a broad class of quantum phase transitions. Exploiting the analytical solutions, we provide a strict definition of the quantum paraelectric regime and identify a distinct quantum ferroelectric regime in which symmetry breaking can be realized without tunneling features. We then show that explicit symmetry breaking cannot be inferred from the order-parameter Hamiltonian alone, but requires additional couplings. This leads us to identify a regime of \emph{quantum dissipative paraelectricity}, in which observable symmetry breaking is suppressed during the evolution toward the ground state, even when the double-well structure dominates over zero-point quantum fluctuations.

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci); Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

arXiv:2608.20168 [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

(or arXiv:2608.20168v1 [cond-mat.mtrl-sci] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.20168 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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