We introduce a one-dimensional version of the Kitaev model consisting of spins on a two-legged ladder and characterized by Z(2) invariants on the plaquettes of the ladder. We map the model to a fermionic system and identify the topological sectors associated with different Z2 patterns in terms of fermion occupation numbers. Within these different sectors, we investigate the effect of a linear quench across a quantum critical point. We study the dominant behavior of the system by employing a Landau-Zener-type analysis of the effective Hamiltonian in the low-energy subspace for which the effective quenching can sometimes be non-linear. We show that the quenching leads to a residual energy which scales as a power of the quenching rate, and that the power depends on the topological sectors and their symmetry properties in a non-trivial way. This behavior is consistent with the general theory of quantum quenching, but with the correlation length exponent nu being different in different sectors. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2010
We explore the salient features of the 'Kitaev ladder', a two-legged ladder version of the spin-1/2 Kitaev model on a honeycomb lattice, by mapping it to a one-dimensional fermionic p-wave superconducting system. We examine the connections between spin phases and topologically non-trivial phases of non-interacting fermionic systems, demonstrating the equivalence between the spontaneous breaking of global Z 2 symmetry in spin systems and the existence of isolated Majorana modes. In the Kitaev ladder, we investigate topological properties of the system in different sectors characterized by the presence or absence of a vortex in each plaquette of the ladder. We show that vortex patterns can yield a rich parameter space for tuning into topologically non-trivial phases. We introduce and employ a new topological invariant for explicitly determining the presence of zero energy Majorana modes at the boundaries of such phases. Finally, we discuss dynamic quenching between topologically non-trivial phases in the Kitaev ladder and, in particular, the post-quench dynamics governed by tuning through a quantum critical point.
We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of quenching through a quantum critical point in topological systems, focusing on one of their defining features: ground-state degeneracies and associated topological sectors. We present the notion of ``topological blocking,'' experienced by the dynamics due to a mismatch in degeneracies between two phases, and we argue that the dynamic evolution of the quench depends strongly on the topological sector being probed. We demonstrate this interplay between quench and topology in models stemming from two extensively studied systems, the transverse Ising chain and the Kitaev honeycomb model. Through nonlocal maps of each of these systems, we effectively study spinless fermionic
p-wave paired topological superconductors. Confining the systems to ring and toroidal geometries, respectively, enables us to cleanly address degeneracies, subtle issues of fermion occupation and parity, and mismatches between topological sectors. We show that various features of the quench, which are related to Kibble-Zurek physics, are sensitive to the topological sector being probed, in particular, the overlap between the time-evolved initial ground state and an appropriate low-energy state of the final Hamiltonian. While most of our study is confined to translationally invariant systems, where momentum is a convenient quantum number, we briefly consider the effect of disorder and illustrate how this can influence the quench in a qualitatively different way depending on the topological sector considered.
We explore the salient features of the `Kitaev ladder', a two-legged ladder version of the spin-1/2 Kitaev model on a honeycomb lattice, by mapping it to a one-dimensional fermionic p-wave superconducting system. We examine the connections between spin phases and topologically non-trivial phases of non-interacting fermionic systems, demonstrating the equivalence between the spontaneous breaking of global Z(2) symmetry in spin systems and the existence of isolated Majorana modes. In the Kitaev ladder, we investigate topological properties of the system in different sectors characterized by the presence or absence of a vortex in each plaquette of the ladder. We show that vortex patterns can yield a rich parameter space for tuning into topologically non-trivial phases. We introduce and employ a new topological invariant for explicitly determining the presence of zero energy Majorana modes at the boundaries of such phases. Finally, we discuss dynamic quenching between topologically non-trivial phases in the Kitaev ladder and, in particular, the post-quench dynamics governed by tuning through a quantum critical point.
We study the quenching dynamics of a many-body system in one dimension described by a Hamiltonian that has spatial periodicity. Specifically, we consider a spin-
21 chain with equal
xx and
yy couplings and subject to a periodically varying magnetic field in the $\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{z}$ direction or, equivalently, a tight-binding model of spinless fermions with a periodic local chemical potential, having period
2q, where
q is a positive integer. For a linear quench of the strength of the magnetic field (or chemical potential) at a rate $1/\ensuremath{\tau}$ across a quantum critical point, we find that the density of defects thereby produced scales as $1/{\ensuremath{\tau}}^{q/(q+1)}$, deviating from the $1/\sqrt{\ensuremath{\tau}}$ scaling that is ubiquitous in a range of systems. We analyze this behavior by mapping the low-energy physics of the system to a set of fermionic two-level systems labeled by the lattice momentum
k undergoing a nonlinear quench as well as by performing numerical simulations. We also show that if the magnetic field is a superposition of different periods, the power law depends only on the smallest period for very large values of $\ensuremath{\tau}$, although it may exhibit a crossover at intermediate values of $\ensuremath{\tau}$. Finally, for the case where a
zz coupling is also present in the spin chain, or equivalently, where interactions are present in the fermionic system, we argue that the power associated with the scaling law depends on a combination of
q and the interaction strength.
In most lattice models, the closing of a band gap typically occurs at high-symmetry points in the Brillouin zone. Differently, in the Creutz model---describing a system of spinless fermions hopping on a two-leg ladder pierced by a magnetic field---the gap closing at the quantum phase transition between the two topologically nontrivial phases of the model can be moved by tuning the hopping amplitudes. We take advantage of this property to examine the nonequilibrium dynamics of the model after a sudden quench of the magnetic flux through the plaquettes of the ladder. For a quench to one of the equilibrium quantum critical points, we find that the revival period of the Loschmidt echo---measuring the overlap between initial and time-evolved states---is controlled by the gap closing zero-energy modes. In particular, and contrary to expectations, the revival period of the Loschmidt echo for a finite ladder does not scale linearly with size but exhibits jumps determined by the presence or absence of zero-energy modes. We further investigate the conditions for the appearance of dynamical quantum phase transitions in the model and find that, for a quench to an equilibrium critical point, such transitions occur only for ladders of sizes which host zero-energy modes. Exploiting concepts from quantum thermodynamics, we show that the average work and the irreversible work per lattice site exhibit a weak dependence on the size of the system after a quench across an equilibrium critical point, suggesting that quenching into a different phase induces effective correlations among the particles.