Realizing discontinuous quantum phase transitions in a strongly correlated driven optical lattice

Discontinuous (first-order) quantum phase transitions and the associated metastability play central roles in diverse areas of physics, ranging from ferromagnetism to the false-vacuum decay in the early Universe1,2; yet, their dynamics are not well understood. Ultracold atoms provide an ideal platform for experimental simulations of quantum phase transitions3,4; so far, however, studies of first-order phase transitions have been limited to...