This Colloquium gives an overview of recent theoretical and experimental progress in the
area of nonequilibrium dynamics of isolated quantum systems. There is particularly a focus …

Spinor Bose gases form a family of quantum fluids manifesting both magnetic order and<?
format?> superfluidity. This article reviews experimental and theoretical progress in …

The theory of phase-ordering dynamics, that is the growth of order through domain
coarsening when a system is quenched from the homogeneous phase into a broken …

Quantum phase transitions (QPTs) involve transformations between different states of matter
that are driven by quantum fluctuations. These fluctuations play a dominant part in the …

The topic of cosmic strings provides a bridge between the physics of the very small and the
very large. They are predicted by some unified theories of particle interactions. If they exist …

Topological defects are thought to be left behind by the cosmological phase transitions
which occur as the universe expands and cools. Similar processes can be studied in the …

Liquid crystals are widely known for their technological uses in displays, electro-optics,
photonics and nonlinear optics, but these applications typically rely on defining and …

A central goal in condensed matter and modern atomic physics is the exploration of
quantum phases of matter—in particular, how the universal characteristics of zero …

Nanoscale ferroelectrics are expected to exhibit various exotic domain configurations, such
as the full flux-closure pattern that is well known in ferromagnetic materials. Here we …

We present two approaches to the dynamics of a quench-induced phase transition in the
quantum Ising model. One follows the standard treatment of thermodynamic second order …