We study quench dynamics and defect production in the Kitaev and the extended Kitaev models. For the Kitaev model in one dimension, we show that in the limit of slow quench rate, the defect density $n\ensuremath{\sim}1/\sqrt{\ensuremath{\tau}}$, where $1/\ensuremath{\tau}$ is the quench rate. We also compute the defect correlation function by providing an exact calculation of all independent nonzero spin correlation functions of the model. In two dimensions, where the quench dynamics takes the system across a critical line, we elaborate on the results of earlier work [K. Sengupta, D. Sen, and S. Mondal, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 077204 (2008)] to discuss the unconventional scaling of the defect density with the quench rate. In this context, we outline a general proof that for a
d-dimensional quantum model, where the quench takes the system through a $d\ensuremath{-}m$ dimensional gapless (critical) surface characterized by correlation length exponent $\ensuremath{\nu}$ and dynamical critical exponent
z, the defect density $n\ensuremath{\sim}1/{\ensuremath{\tau}}^{m\ensuremath{\nu}/(z\ensuremath{\nu}+1)}$. We also discuss the variation of the shape and spatial extent of the defect correlation function with both the rate of quench and the model parameters and compute the entropy generated during such a quenching process. Finally, we study the defect scaling law, entropy generation and defect correlation function of the two-dimensional extended Kitaev model.
We show that the defect density
n, for a slow nonlinear power-law quench with a rate ${\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ and an exponent $\ensuremath{\alpha}>0$, which takes the system through a critical point characterized by correlation length and dynamical critical exponents $\ensuremath{\nu}$ and
z, scales as $n\ensuremath{\sim}{\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\nu}d/(\ensuremath{\alpha}z\ensuremath{\nu}+1)}$ [$n\ensuremath{\sim}(\ensuremath{\alpha}{g}^{(\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{-}1)/\ensuremath{\alpha}}/\ensuremath{\tau}{)}^{\ensuremath{\nu}d/(z\ensuremath{\nu}+1)}$] if the quench takes the system across the critical point at time
t=0 [$t={t}_{0}\ensuremath{\ne}0$], where
g is a nonuniversal constant and
d is the system dimension. These scaling laws constitute the first theoretical results for defect production in nonlinear quenches across quantum critical points and reproduce their well-known counterpart for a linear quench ($\ensuremath{\alpha}=1$) as a special case. We supplement our results with numerical studies of well-known models and suggest experiments to test our theory.
We study the generation of defects when a quantum spin system is quenched through a multicritical point by changing a parameter of the Hamiltonian as t /τ, where τ is the characteristic timescale of quenching. We argue that when a quantum system is quenched across a multicritical point, the density of defects ( n ) in the final state is not necessarily given by the Kibble–Zurek scaling form n ∼1/τ d ν/( z ν+1) , where d is the spatial dimension, and ν and z are respectively the correlation length and dynamical exponent associated with the quantum critical point. We propose a generalized scaling form of the defect density given by n ∼1/τ d /(2 z 2 ) , where the exponent z 2 determines the behavior of the off-diagonal term of the 2 × 2 Landau–Zener matrix at the multicritical point. This scaling is valid not only at a multicritical point but also at an ordinary critical point.
We study the quench dynamics of the three-dimensional Kitaev (spin) model under a linear drive using both exact numerical calculations and analytical independent crossing approximation. Unlike the two-dimensional Kitaev model, the three-dimensional Kitaev model reduces to a multilevel Landau-Zener problem for each momentum. We show that for the slow quench, the defect density is proportional to the quench rate $1/\ensuremath{\tau}$. We find that the zeros of the relevant coupling between the levels determine the nonadiabatic condition for the production of defects. The contour on which the energy spectrum becomes gapless does not play an active role. The asymptotic behavior of the defect density crucially depends on the way the system reaches the nonadiabatic regime during the quenching process. We analytically show that defect correlation varies as ${\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}{e}^{\ensuremath{-}A/\ensuremath{\tau}}$ where
A is a constant independent of $\ensuremath{\tau}$. For the slow quench, the qualitative dependence of the entropy (produced during the quenching process) on the quench time is the same as that of the defect correlation, indicating a close connection between the defect correlation and the entropy content of the final state. Possible experimental realization of such quench dynamics is also described briefly.
We study the nonequilibrium slow dynamics for the Kitaev model both in the presence and the absence of disorder. For the case without disorder, we demonstrate, via an exact solution, that the model provides an example of a system with an anisotropic critical point and exhibits unusual scaling of defect density
n and residual energy
Q for a slow linear quench. We provide a general expression for the scaling of
n(Q) generated during a slow power-law dynamics, characterized by a rate ${\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ and exponent $\ensuremath{\alpha}$, from a gapped phase to an anisotropic quantum critical point in
d dimensions, for which the energy gap ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\stackrel{P\vec}{k}}\ensuremath{\sim}{k}_{i}^{z}$ for
m momentum components
(i=1,…,m) and $\ensuremath{\sim}{k}_{i}^{{z}^{\ensuremath{'}}}$ for the rest $d\ensuremath{-}m$ components
(i=m+1,…,d) with $z\ensuremath{\le}{z}^{\ensuremath{'}}$: $n\ensuremath{\sim}{\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}[m+(d\ensuremath{-}m)z/{z}^{\ensuremath{'}}]\ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\alpha}/(z\ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\alpha}+1)}(Q\ensuremath{\sim}{\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}[(m+z)+(d\ensuremath{-}m)z/{z}^{\ensuremath{'}}]\ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\alpha}/(z\ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\alpha}+1)})$. These general expressions reproduce both the corresponding results for the Kitaev model as a special case for $d={z}^{\ensuremath{'}}=2$ and $m=z=\ensuremath{\nu}=1$ and the well-known scaling laws of
n and
Q for isotropic critical points for $z={z}^{\ensuremath{'}}$. We also present an exact computation of all nonzero, independent, multispin correlation functions of the Kitaev model for such a quench and discuss their spatial dependence. For the disordered Kitaev model, where the disorder is introduced via random choice of the link variables
Dn in the model's fermionic representation, we find that $n\ensuremath{\sim}{\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}1/2}$ and $Q\ensuremath{\sim}{\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ $(Q\ensuremath{\sim}{\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}1/2})$ for a slow linear quench ending in the gapless (gapped) phase. We provide a qualitative explanation of such scaling.
We study defect production in a quantum system subjected to a nonlinear power-law quench which takes it either through a quantum critical or multicritical point or along a quantum critical line. We elaborate on our earlier work [D. Sen, K. Sengupta, and S. Mondal, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 016806 (2008)] and present a detailed analysis of the scaling of the defect density
n with the quench rate $\ensuremath{\tau}$ and exponent $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ for each of the above-mentioned cases. We also compute the correlation functions for defects generated in nonlinear quenches through a quantum critical point and discuss the dependence of the amplitudes of such correlation functions on the exponent $\ensuremath{\alpha}$. We discuss several experimental systems where these theoretical predictions can be tested.