Nonequilibrium Prethermal States in a Two-Dimensional Photon Fluid

Murad Abuzarli (1) , Nicolas Cherroret (1) , Tom Bienaimé (1, 2) , Quentin Glorieux (1)

1 LKB [Collège de France] - Laboratoire Kastler Brossel
2 ISIS - Institut de Science et d'ingénierie supramoléculaires

We report on the observation of a prethermal state in a nonequilibrium, two-dimensional fluid of light. Direct measurements of the first order coherence function of the fluid reveal the dynamical emergence of algebraic correlations, a quasi-steady-state with properties close to those of thermal superfluids. By a controlled increase of the fluctuations, we observe a crossover from algebraic to short-range (exponential) correlations. We interpret this phenomenon as a nonequilibrium precursor of the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition.

Mots clés: dimension: 2; thermal; fluid; boundary condition; correlation; perturbation; thermodynamical; short-range; long-range; fluctuation; light cone; photon; many-body problem; superfluid; critical phenomena

Domaines: Matière Condensée [cond-mat]; Physique Quantique [quant-ph]

Murad Abuzarli, Nicolas Cherroret, Tom Bienaimé, Quentin Glorieux. Nonequilibrium Prethermal States in a Two-Dimensional Photon Fluid. Physical Review Letters, 2022, 129 (10), pp.100602. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.100602⟩. ⟨hal-03621458⟩