Observing dynamical phases of BCS superconductors in a cavity QED simulator

In conventional Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer superconductors1, electrons with opposite momenta bind into Cooper pairs due to an attractive interaction mediated by phonons in the material. Although superconductivity naturally emerges at thermal equilibrium, it can also emerge out of equilibrium when the system parameters are abruptly changed2–8. The resulting out-of-equilibrium phases are predicted to occur in real materials and ultracold fermionic atoms, but not all have yet been directly observed.