Kibble-Zurek Scaling: Universality and scaling

Near a critical point, the equilibrium relaxation time of a system diverges and any change of control/thermodynamic parameters leads to non-equilibrium behavior. The Kibble-Zurek (KZ) problem is to determine the dynamical evolution of the system parametrically close to its critical point when the change is parametrically slow. We formulate the KZ problem as a scaling limit and compute its universal content analytically (critical exponents+scaling functions) in a few classical and quantum models. We also use gauge-gravity duality to compute KZ response functions in more exotic critical theories.