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arXiv:1303.6655 · Physical Review Letters

Crossover Physics in the Nonequilibrium Dynamics of Quenched Quantum Impurity Systems

Romain Vasseur, Kien Trinh, Stephan Haas, Hubert Saleur

Published Jun 13, 2013• 65 citations
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Abstract

A general framework is proposed to tackle analytically local quantum quenches in integrable impurity systems, combining a mapping onto a boundary problem with the form factor approach to boundary-condition-changing operators introduced by Lesage and Saleur [Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 4370 (1998)]. We discuss how to compute exactly the following two central quantities of interest: the Loschmidt echo and the distribution of the work done during the quantum quench. Our results display an interesting crossover physics characterized by the energy scale T(b) of the impurity corresponding to the Kondo temperature. We discuss in detail the noninteracting case as a paradigm and benchmark for more complicated integrable impurity models and check our results using numerical methods.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.110.240601

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A general framework is proposed to tackle analytically local quantum quenches in integrable impurity systems, combining a mapping onto a boundary problem with the form factor approach to boundary-condition-changing operators introduced by Lesage and Saleur [Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 4370 (1998)]. We discuss how to compute exactly the following two central quantities of interest: the Loschmidt echo and the distribution of the work done during the quantum quench. Our results display an interesting crossover physics characterized by the energy scale T(b) of the impurity corresponding to the Kondo temperature. We discuss in detail the noninteracting case as a paradigm and benchmark for more complicated integrable impurity models and check our results using numerical methods.
The equilibrium physics of quantum impurities frequently involves a universal crossover from weak to strong reservoir-impurity coupling, characterized by single-parameter scaling and an energy scale TK{T}_{K}TK​ (Kondo temperature) that breaks scale invariance. For the noninteracting resonant level model, the nonequilibrium time evolution of the Loschmidt echo after a local quantum quench was recently computed explicitly [R. Vasseur, K. Trinh, S. Haas, and H. Saleur, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 240601 (2013)]. It shows single-parameter scaling with variable TKt{T}_{K}tTK​t. Here, we scrutinize whether similar universal dynamics can be observed in various interacting quantum impurity systems. Using density matrix and functional renormalization group approaches, we analyze the time evolution resulting from abruptly coupling two noninteracting Fermi or interacting Luttinger liquid leads via a quantum dot or a direct link. We also consider the case of a single Luttinger liquid lead suddenly coupled to a quantum dot. We investigate whether the field-theory predictions for the universal scaling as well as for the large-time behavior successfully describe the time evolution of the Loschmidt echo and the entanglement entropy of microscopic models. Our study shows that for the considered local quench protocols the above quantum impurity models fall into a class of problems for which the nonequilibrium dynamics can largely be understood based on the knowledge of the corresponding equilibrium physics.
We study the time dependence of the entanglement between two quantum wires after suddenly connecting them via tunneling through an impurity. The result at large times is given by the well known formula S(t) \approx {1\over 3}\ln {t} . We show that the intermediate time regime can be described by a universal cross-over formula S=F(tT_K) S = F ( t T K ) , where T_K T K is the crossover (Kondo) temperature: the function F F describes the dynamical “healing” of the system at large times. We discuss how to obtain analytic information about F F in the case of an integrable quantum impurity problem using the massless Form-Factors formalism for twist and boundary condition changing operators. Our results are confirmed by density matrix renormalization group calculations and exact free fermion numerics.
We provide systematic analysis on a non-Hermitian PT\mathcal{PT}PT-symmetric quantum impurity system both in and out of equilibrium, based on exact computations. In order to understand the interplay between non-Hermiticity and Kondo physics, we focus on a prototypical noninteracting impurity system, the resonant level model, with complex coupling constants. Explicitly constructing biorthogonal basis, we study its thermodynamic properties as well as the Loschmidt echo starting from the initially disconnected two free fermion chains. Remarkably, we observe the universal crossover physics in the Loschmidt echo, both in the PT\mathcal{PT}PT broken and unbroken regimes. We also find that the ground state quantities we compute in the PT\mathcal{PT}PT broken regime can be obtained by analytic continuation. It turns out that Kondo screening ceases to exist in the PT\mathcal{PT}PT broken regime, which was also previously predicted in the non-Hermitian Kondo model. All the analytical results are corroborated against biorthogonal free fermion numerics.
Using detailed balance and scaling properties of integrals that appear in the Coulomb gas reformulation of quantum impurity problems, we establish exact relations between the nonequilibrium transfer rates of the boundary sine-Gordon and the anisotropic Kondo model at zero temperature. Combining these results with findings from the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz, we derive exact closed form expressions for the transfer rate in the biased spin-boson model in the scaling limit. They illustrate how the crossover from weak to strong tunneling takes place. Using a conjectured correspondence between the transfer and the decoherence rate, we also determine the exact lower bound for damping of the coherent oscillation as a function of bias and dissipation strength in this paradigmic model for nuclear magnetic resonance and superposition of macroscopically distinct states (qubits).
A bstract We investigate an integrable boundary quench, in which one integrable boundary condition is suddenly switched to another. We develop a general framework for analyzing the resulting real-time dynamics based on form factors of bulk and boundary-changing operators. We first study the problem at the conformal point of the Lee-Yang model and then extend the analysis to its massive perturbation, where we examine the time evolution of the pre-quench vacuum and compute the vacuum-to-vacuum matrix elements of local operators inserted after the quench. The analytical results are validated by numerical calculations using the truncated conformal space approach adapted to boundary-changing situations.
We study the entanglement entropy of a region of length 2L2L2L with the remainder of an infinite one-dimensional gapless quantum system in the case where the region is centered on a quantum impurity. The coupling to this impurity is not scale invariant, and the physics involves a crossover between weak- and strong-coupling regimes. While the impurity contribution to the entanglement has been computed numerically in the past, little is known analytically about it, since in particular the methods of conformal invariance cannot be applied because of the presence of a crossover length. We show in this paper that the small coupling expansion of the entanglement entropy in this problem is quite generally plagued by strong infrared divergences, implying a nonperturbative dependence on the coupling. The large coupling expansion turns out to be better behaved, thanks to powerful results from the boundary CFT formulation and, in some cases, the underlying integrability of the problem. However, it is clear that this expansion does not capture well the crossover physics. In the integrable case---which includes problems such as an XXZXXZXXZ chain with a modified link, the interacting resonant level model or the anisotropic Kondo model---a nonperturbative approach is in principle possible using form factors. We adapt in this paper the ideas of Cardy et al. [J. Stat. Phys. 130, 129 (2008)] and Castro-Alvaredo and Doyon [J. Stat. Phys. 134, 105 (2009)] to the gapless case and show that, in the rather simple case of the resonant level model, and after some additional renormalizations, the form-factors approach yields remarkably accurate results for the entanglement all the way from short to large distances. This is confirmed by detailed comparison with numerical simulations. Both our form factor and numerical results are compatible with a nonperturbative form at short distance.