We study dynamical phase transitions from antiferromagnetic to paramagnetic states driven by an interaction quench in the fermionic Hubbard model using the nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory. We identify two dynamical transition points where the relaxation behavior qualitatively changes: one corresponds to the thermal phase transition at which the order parameter decays critically slowly in a power law ∝t(-1/2), and the other is connected to the existence of nonthermal antiferromagnetic order in systems with effective temperature above the thermal critical temperature. The frequency of the amplitude mode extrapolates to zero as one approaches the nonthermal (quasi)critical point, and thermalization is significantly delayed by the trapping in the nonthermal state. A slow relaxation of the nonthermal order is followed by a faster thermalization process.
We study dynamical phase transitions from antiferromagnetic to paramagnetic states driven by an interaction quench in the fermionic Hubbard model using the nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory. We identify two dynamical transition points where the relaxation behavior qualitatively changes: one corresponds to the thermal phase transition at which the order parameter decays critically slowly in a power law ∝t(-1/2), and the other is connected to the existence of nonthermal antiferromagnetic order in systems with effective temperature above the thermal critical temperature. The frequency of the amplitude mode extrapolates to zero as one approaches the nonthermal (quasi)critical point, and thermalization is significantly delayed by the trapping in the nonthermal state. A slow relaxation of the nonthermal order is followed by a faster thermalization process.
We study the time evolution of the antiferromagnetic order parameter after interaction quenches in the Hubbard model. Using the nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field formalism, we show that the system, after a quench from intermediate to strong interaction, is trapped in a nonthermal state which is reminiscent of a photodoped state and protected by the slow decay of doublons. If the effective doping of this state is low enough, it exhibits robust antiferromagnetic order, even if the system is highly excited and the thermal state is thus expected to be paramagnetic. We comment on the implication of our findings for the stability of nonthermal superconducting states.
In this Thesis we discussed several issues related to the dynamics of isolated quantum many-body systems. The brief overview of Chapter 1 highlighted a series of open fundamental theoretical questions which are crucial for the investigation of nonequilibrium phenomena. Among them, we mainly focused on the emergence of thermal behaviors and on the characterization of dynamical phase transitions and of the associated universal dynamics. To this end, we analyzed some paradigmatic models, such as the Fermi-Hubbard model, the quantum Ising chain, and the O(N) model. -Chapter 2: Absence of thermalization in a Fermi liquid. In this Chapter we report two results that question the common expectation of thermalization in a Landau-Fermi liquid after an interaction quench. We first consider the perturbative expansion in the interaction strength of the long-wavelength structure factor S(q) and show that it does not satisfy the hypothesis that steady-state averages correspond to thermal ones. In particular, S(q) has an analytical component ∼ const. + O(q^2) for q → 0, compatible with thermalization, but it retains also a nonanalytic term ∼ |q| characteristic of a Fermi liquid at zero-temperature. In real space, this nonanalyticity turns in a power-law decay of the density-density correlations, in contrast with the exponential decay associated to thermalization. We next analyze the low-density case, where one can obtain results valid at any order in interaction but at leading in the density, and find that in the steady state the momentum distribution jump at the Fermi surface is strictly finite, though smaller than at equilibrium. -Chapter 3: Nonadiabatic stationary behavior in a driven Ising chain. In this Chapter we discuss the emergence of a nonadiabatic behavior in the dynamics of the order parameter in a low-dimensional system subject to a linear ramp of one of its parameters within a gapped phase, which should be the most favorable situation for an adiabatic evolution. We study in details the dynamics of the spontaneous magnetization m_x(t) in a quantum Ising chain after a linear variation in time of the transverse field within the ordered phase. In particular, focusing on the value of the order parameter at the end of the ramp m_x(τ), we show that the smaller the switching rate of the transverse field is the closer m_x(τ) gets to its ground state value. Nonetheless, this apparently small correction to adiabaticity eventually leads to the disruption of the order exponentially fast in the subsequent time evolution, no matter how slowly the ramp is performed. -Chapter 4: Aging and coarsening in isolated quantum systems after a quench. This Chapter analyzes the nonequilibrium dynamics of an isolated quantum system after a sudden quench to the dynamical critical point, where the emergence of scaling and universal exponents is expected, due to the absence of time and length scales. We explore these features for a bosonic interacting scalar field theory with O(N) symmetry in the large-N limit, where the model is exactly solvable and the exponents and scaling forms of the relevant two-time correlation functions can be analytically calculated. Moreover, we provide evidence of the emergence of a dynamical scaling behavior also for quenches below the dynamical critical point, associated with coarsening. We find that the latter case is characterized by the same scaling functions as those describing the critical case, yet with different exponents. -Chapter 5: Dynamical transitions and statistics of excitations. In this Chapter we study the dynamics of the O(N) model (introduced in the previous Chapter) resulting from a different protocol: a linear ramp of one of its parameters. We find that the presence of a dynamical phase transition, as well as its critical properties, are robust against the change of the protocol. We show that a characterization based on the critical dimensions and exponents would suggest that the dynamical phase transition is analogous to the equilibrium thermal one. However, its nonequilibrium nature becomes evident analyzing the statistics of excitations produced in the ramp process. In particular, the critical properties are encoded in the fluctuations in the number of excitations, which display qualitatively different behaviors depending on the ramp being performed above, at, or below the dynamical critical point. These behaviors bear no dependence on the duration of the protocol.
We study the melting of long-range antiferromagnetic order in the Hubbard model after an interaction quench, using nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory. From previous studies, the system is known to quickly relax into a prethermal symmetry-broken state. Using a convergent truncation of the memory integrals in the Kadanoff Baym equations, we unravel the subsequent relaxation dynamics of this state over several orders of magnitude in time. At long times, the prethermal state can be characterized by a single slow variable, which is related to the conduction band population. The dynamics of this variable is highly nonlinear, with a pronounced speedup once the gap falls below a certain value. This behavior indicates that nonthermal order can be self-sustained on some timescale because of a thermalization bottleneck is provided by the gap opened by the long-range order itself. These results cannot be reproduced using simple Fermi's golden rule estimate for the evolution of the conduction band population, and are distinct from the conventional scenario for the relaxation of prethermal states, in which a slow thermalization follows a rapid prethermalization.
We investigate by means of the time-dependent Gutzwiller variational approach the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of an antiferromagnetic state evolved with the Hubbard model Hamiltonian after a sudden change of the repulsion strength U. We find that magnetic order survives more than what is expected on the basis of thermalization arguments, in agreement with recent dynamical mean field theory calculations. In addition, we find evidence of a dynamical transition for quenches to large values of U between a coherent antiferromagnet characterized by a finite quasiparticle residue to an incoherent one with vanishing residue, which finally turns into a paramagnet for even larger U.
After a quench of transverse field, the asymptotic long-time state of the Ising model displays a transition from a ferromagnetic phase to a paramagnetic phase as the post-quench field strength increases, which is revealed by the vanishing of the order parameter defined as the averaged magnetization over time. We estimate the critical behavior of the magnetization at this nonequilibrium phase transition by using the mean-field approximation. In the vicinity of the critical field, the magnetization vanishes as the inverse of a logarithmic function, which is significantly distinguished from the critical behavior of order parameter at the corresponding equilibrium phase transition, i.e. a power-law function.
We study numerically the nonequilibrium dynamical behavior of an Ising model with mixed two-spin and four-spin interactions after a sudden quench from the high-temperature phase to the first-order phase transition point. The autocorrelation function is shown to approach its limiting value, given by the magnetization in the ordered phase at the transition point, m c , through a stretched exponential decay. On the other hand relaxation of the magnetization starting with an uncorrelated initial state with magnetization, m i , approaches either m c , for m i > 0.5, or zero, for m i < 0.5. For small m i and for m i slightly larger than 0.5 the relaxation of the magnetization shows an asymptotic power law time dependence, thus from a nonequilibrium point of view the transition is continuous.