Role of non-Markovian dissipation in quantum phase transitions: Tricriticality, spin squeezing, and directional symmetry breaking

Understanding how to control phase transitions in quantum systems is at the forefront of research for the development of new quantum materials and technologies. Here, we study how the coupling of a quantum system to a non-Markovian environment, i.e., an environment with a frequency-dependent spectral density inducing memory effects, can be used to generate and reshape phase transitions and squeezing in matter phases. Focusing on a Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model, we demonstrate that non-Markovian dissipation can be leveraged to engineer tricriticality via the fusion of second-order and first-order critical points. We identify phases that arise from different ways of breaking the single weak symmetry of our model, which led us to examine an alternative concept of directional spontaneous symmetry breaking (DSSB) as a general framework to understand this phenomenon. We show that signatures of DSSB can be seen in the emergence of spin squeezing along different directions, and that the latter is controllable via non-Markovian effects, opening up possibilities for applications in quantum metrology. Finally, we propose an experimental implementation of our non-Markovian model in cavity QED. Our work features non-Markovianity as a resource for controlling phase transitions in general systems, and highlights shortcomings of the Markovian limit in this context.