Matthew publishes his first paper in PRB

Matthew has published his first paper entitled: Dynamical symmetry breaking with optimal control: Reducing the number of pieces in Phys. Rev. B. The research, conducted in collaboration with Gabriele, has analysed the production of defects when a system crosses a phase transition. As predicted by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, the rate of production of defects depends on the rate of change of the parameter driving the transition. By carefully tailoring the time-dependence of this parameter Matthew and Gabriele have shown that the number of defects can be drastically reduced by more than 40%. This research can be readily used in experiments of structural phase transitions of trapped ion crystals.

Ref.: Matthew J. M. Power and Gabriele De Chiara, Phys. Rev. B 88, 214106 (2013).