The theory of quantum quenches in translationally invariant isolated systems near quantum critical points is formulated from first principles. The theory generally explains the role of interactions among the quasi-particle excitations, the quantum mechanism at the origin of light cone spreading of correlations, and the presence of different time scales in the dynamics. In one dimension the theory clarifies the role of integrability and predicts that persistent oscillations of the order parameter arise depending on the coupling subjected to the quench. The oscillation frequencies correspond to the masses of the quasi-particle excitations. The predictions of the theory are confirmed by independent numerical studies. References: [1] G. Delfino, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 47 (2014) 402001. [2] G. Delfino and J. Viti, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 50 (2017) 084004. [3] G. Delfino, Phys. Rev. E 97, 062138 (2018).
Determining the role of initial conditions in the late time evolution is a key issue for the theory of nonequilibrium dynamics of isolated quantum systems. Here we extend the theory of quantum quenches to the case in which before the quench the system is in an excited state. In particular, we show perturbatively in the size of the quench (and for arbitrarily strong interactions among the quasiparticles) that persistent oscillations of one-point functions require the presence of a one-quasiparticle contribution to the nonequilibrium state, as originally shown in [J. Phys. A 47 (2014) 402001] for the quenches from the ground state. Also in the present case, we argue that the results generically have nonperturbative implications. Oscillations staying undamped within the accessible time interval, far beyond the perturbative time scale, are nowadays observed in numerical simulations.
We extend the theory of quantum quenches to the case of d -dimensional homogeneous systems with long range interactions. This is achieved treating the long range interactions as switched on by the quench and performing the derivation within the basis of asymptotic states of the short range interacting pre-quench theory. In this way we analytically determine the post-quench state and the one-point functions of local observables such as the order parameter. One implication is that, as in the short range case, some oscillations induced by the quench remain undamped at large times under conditions specified by the theory. This explains, in particular, why such undamped oscillations have been numerically observed also in presence of long range interactions.
Quantum phase transitions occur strictly at zero temperature and are accessed by varying a physical parameter such as a magnetic field or chemical potential. While these transitions themselves are experimentally inaccessible, the existence of a zero temperature quantum critical point has remarkable effects on the dynamical properties of interacting quantum many-body systems at finite temperatures. In this thesis, we study dynamics in four strongly interacting many-body systems near quantum critical points in the context of NMR relaxation, quantum quenches, many-body quantum chaos, and charge diffusion. In chapter 1, we begin by revisiting the issue of NMR relaxation in the quantum disordered phase of Ising spin chains. We find that the imaginary part of the spin susceptibility at low frequences is dominated by rare quantum processes which leads to an NMR relaxation rate that scales as
1/T1∼exp(−T2Δ) near the quantum critical point rather than the previously conjectured
1/T1∼exp(−TΔ). These results resolve certain discrepancies between the energy scales measured with different experimental probes in the quantum disordered paramagnetic phase of the Ising chain system
CoNb2O6. In chapter 2, we study the non-equilibrium dynamics of Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) models with
q body interactions after a quantum quench, considering a quench protocol which drives the system from an initial state with long-lived quasiparticle excitations to a final state lacking any long-lived quasiparticle excitations. For
q=4, we find that the timescale for the system to locally thermalize
τeq∼kBTℏ and for
q→∞ we find that the system thermalizes instantaneously. In chapter 3, we study the real time dynamics of quantum electrodynamics in 2+1 dimensions with
Nf flavors of fermions. We focus on thermalization and the onset of many-body quantum chaos and compute the quantum Lyapunov exponent in a
Nf1 expansion. We briefly comment on chaos, locality, and gauge invariance. Finally, in Chapter 4 we consider whether the butterfly velocity - a speed at which quantum information propagates - may provide a fundamental bound on diffusion constants in dirty incoherent metals by computing the charge diffusion constant and the butterfly velocity in charge-neutral holographic matter with long wavelength ``hydrodynamic" disorder. In this limit, we find that the butterfly velocity does not set a sharp lower bound for the charge diffusion constant.
Out-of-equilibrium quantum systems display complex temporal patterns. Such time fluctuations are generically exponentially small in the system volume and therefore can be safely ignored in most of the cases. However, if one consider small quench experiments, time fluctuations can be greatly enhanced. We show that time fluctuations may become stronger than other forms of equilibrium quantum fluctuations if the quench is performed close to a critical point. For sufficiently relevant operators the full distribution function of dynamically evolving observable expectation values becomes a universal function uniquely characterized by the critical exponents and the boundary conditions. At regular points of the phase diagram and for nonsufficiently relevant operators the distribution becomes Gaussian. Our predictions are confirmed by an explicit calculation on the quantum Ising model.
We study the slow quenching dynamics (characterized by an inverse rate ${\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$) of a one-dimensional transverse Ising chain with nearest neighbor ferromagentic interactions across the quantum critical point (QCP) and analyze the Loschmidt overlap measured using the subsequent temporal evolution of the final wave function (reached at the end of the quenching) with the final time-independent Hamiltonian. Studying the Fisher zeros of the corresponding generalized ``partition function,'' we probe nonanalyticities manifested in the rate function of the return probability known as dynamical phase transitions (DPTs). In contrast to the sudden quenching case, we show that DPTs survive in the subsequent temporal evolution following the quenching across two critical points of the model for a sufficiently slow rate; furthermore, an interesting ``lobe'' structure of Fisher zeros emerge. We have also made a connection to topological aspects studying the dynamical topological order parameter $[{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{D}(t)]$ as a function of time
(t) measured from the instant when the quenching is complete. Remarkably, the time evolution of ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{D}(t)$ exhibits drastically different behavior following quenches across a single QCP and two QCPs. In the former case, ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{D}(t)$ increases stepwise by unity at every DPT (i.e., $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{D}=1$). In the latter case, on the other hand, ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{D}(t)$ essentially oscillates between 0 and 1 (i.e., successive DPTs occur with $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{D}=1$ and $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{D}=\ensuremath{-}1$, respectively), except for instants where it shows a sudden jump by a factor of unity when two successive DPTs carry a topological charge of the same sign.