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arXiv:0807.3606 · Journal of Statistical Mechanics Theory and Experiment

Defect production due to quenching through a multicritical point

Uma Divakaran, Victor Mukherjee, Amit Dutta, Diptiman Sen

Published Feb 2, 2009• 73 citations
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Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1088/1742-5468/2009/02/p02007

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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.
The Kibble-Zurek mechanism predicts a universal scaling behavior of the defect production when a system is slowly quenched across a critical phase transition point. Here, we discover that the universal scaling behavior across a higher-order topological phase transition does not conform to the traditional Kibble-Zurek mechanism. To explain the anomalous scaling exponent, we develop a solvable Landau-Zener model that takes into account the role of topological edge band that dominates the phase transition. For a two-dimensional boundary-obstructed higher-order topological system, the Kibble-Zurek scaling must be modified to adopt the effective dimension of topological edge band instead of the real physical dimension. We also find that across the boundary-obstructed higher-order topological phase transition, boundary conditions can drastically modify the scaling behaviors. For comparison, we investigate the slow quench dynamics across the bulk-obstructed phase transitions and a single multicritical point, which obeys the Kibble-Zurek mechanism with physical dimension.
When a system is swept through a quantum critical point, the Kibble-Zurek mechanism predicts that the average number of topological defects follows a universal power-law scaling with the ramp timescale. This scaling behavior is determined by the equilibrium critical exponents of the underlying phase transition. We show that the correspondence between Kibble-Zurek scaling and quantum criticality does not hold generally. In particular, the defect density can exhibit a suppression faster than the Kibble-Zurek prediction even when the quench crosses a critical point, while conventional Kibble-Zurek scaling may persist for quenches through a noncritical point. Our results, based on models representative of a broad class of quasi-one-dimensional Fermi systems, identify the dynamical conditions under which universal defect scaling emerges and clarify the relation between defect generation and equilibrium criticality. © 2026 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.
When a system is swept through a quantum critical point (QCP), the Kibble-Zurek mechanism predicts that the average number of topological defects follows a universal power-law scaling with the ramp time scale. This scaling behavior is determined by the equilibrium critical exponents of the underlying phase transition. We show that the correspondence between Kibble-Zurek scaling and quantum criticality does not hold generally. In particular, the defect density can exhibit a suppression faster than the Kibble-Zurek prediction even when the quench crosses a critical point, while conventional Kibble-Zurek scaling may persist for quenches through a non-critical point. Our results, based on models representative of a broad class of quasi-one-dimensional Fermi systems, identify the dynamical conditions under which universal defect scaling emerges and clarify the relation between defect generation and equilibrium criticality.
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 nnn 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.
We show that for a d-dimensional model in which a quench with a rate tau(-1) takes the system across a (d-m)-dimensional critical surface, the defect density scales as n approximately 1/tau(mnu/(znu+1)), where nu and z are the correlation length and dynamical critical exponents characterizing the critical surface. We explicitly demonstrate that the Kitaev model provides an example of such a scaling with d = 2 and m = nu = z = 1. We also provide the first example of an exact calculation of some multispin correlation functions for a two-dimensional model that can be used to determine the correlation between the defects. We suggest possible experiments to test our theory.
We study adiabatic quantum quenches across a quantum multicritical point (MCP) using a quenching scheme that enables the system to hit the MCP along different paths. We show that the power-law scaling of the defect density with the rate of driving depends non-trivially on the path, i.e. , the exponent varies continuously with the parameter α that defines the path, up to a critical value α=α c ; on the other hand for α⩾α c , the scaling exponent saturates to a constant value. We show that dynamically generated and path (α)- dependent effective critical exponents associated with the quasicritical points lying close to the MCP (on the ferromagnetic side), where the energy-gap is minimum, lead to this continuously varying exponent. The scaling relations are established using the integrable transverse XY spin chain and generalized to a MCP associated with a d -dimensional quantum many-body systems (not reducible to two-level systems) using adiabatic perturbation theory. We also calculate the effective path-dependent dimensional shift d 0 (α) (or the shift in center of the impulse region) that appears in the scaling relation for special paths lying entirely in the paramagnetic phase. The numerically obtained results are in good agreement with analytical predictions.