Far-from-equilibrium topological phase transition in one dimension

Abstract

We uncover a mechanism for far-from-equilibrium topological phase transitions, via a one-dimensional compact phase model evolving deterministically from random initial conditions. It rests on topology and symmetry rather than on phenomenological postulates: phase compactness permits vortices, and a homogeneous fixed point suppresses their nucleation, with the fixed point itself implied by phase-shift symmetry. The competition between vortex-induced disordering and relaxation toward homogeneity drives a continuous nonequilibrium transition, whose universality class we identify as directed percolation (DP). We demonstrate this by constructing the corresponding effective field theory and numerically confirming DP critical scaling through dynamical-scaling analysis.