Holographic Superfluids and the Dynamics of Symmetry Breaking

We explore the far from equilibrium response of a holographic superfluid using the AdS/CFT correspondence. We establish the dynamical phase diagram corresponding to quantum quenches of the order parameter source field. We find three distinct regimes of behaviour that are related to the spectrum of black hole quasi-normal modes. These correspond to damped oscillations of the order parameter, and over-damped approaches to the superfluid and normal states. The presence of three regimes, which includes an emergent dynamical temperature scale, is argued to occur more generally in time-reversal invariant systems that display continuous symmetry breaking.