Critical slowing down in driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard lattices

Dissipative phase transitions in lattice systems are currently being explored both theoretically and experimentally, but very little is known about the dynamics of such critical phenomena. After a brief introduction of the topic, we present our recent results [1] about the dynamical properties of a first-order dissipative phase transition in coherently driven Bose-Hubbard systems, describing, e.g., lattices of coupled nonlinear optical cavities. Via stochastic trajectory calculations based on the truncated Wigner approximation, we investigate the dynamical behavior as a function of system size for 1D and 2D square lattices in the regime where mean-field theory predicts nonlinear bistability. We show that a critical slowing down emerges for increasing number of sites in 2D square lattices, while it is absent in 1D arrays. We characterize the peculiar properties of the collective phases in the critical region.
[1] F. Vicentini, F. Minganti, R. Rota, G. Orso, C. Ciuti, arXiv:1709.04238