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.
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.
The nonequilibrium dynamics of a periodically driven extended XY model, in the presence of linear time dependent magnetic field, is investigated using the notion of dynamical quantum phase transitions (DQPTs). Along the similar lines to the equilibrium phase transition, the main purpose of this work is to search fundamental concepts such as scaling and universality at the ramped quench DQPTs. We have shown that the critical points of the model, where the gap closing occurs, can be moved by tuning the driven frequency and consequently the presence of or absence of DQPTs can be flexibly controlled by adjusting the driven frequency. We have uncovered that, for a ramp across the single quantum critical point, the critical mode at which DQPTs occur is classified into three regions: the Kibble-Zurek (KZ) region, where the critical mode scales linearly with the square root of the sweep velocity, the pre-saturated (PS) region, and the saturated (S) region where the critical mode makes a plateau versus the sweep velocity. While for a ramp that crosses two critical points, the critical modes disclose just the KZ and PS regions. On the basis of numerical simulations, we find that the dynamical free energy scales linearly with time, as approaches to DQPT time, with the exponentν=1±0.01for all sweep velocities and driven frequencies.
In this work, we investigate quantum quenches in the two-leg Creutz model with long-range hopping, where the hopping amplitudes decay with distance as a power law characterized by an exponent ν and have a finite range D. We first obtain the exact solution of a generic two-band model in momentum space. This allows us to compute the Loschmidt amplitude and, consequently, the dynamical free energy f(t) of the two-band model. We also show how to determine the Yang-Lee Fisher (YLF) zeros by solving a nonlinear equation. We demonstrate that the two-leg Creutz model in momentum space is a special case of the generic two-band model. Using these results, we identify the non-analyticities in the dynamical free energy f(t) at critical times tc. We find that the number of nontrivial critical times Ns depends on both ν and D. In particular, we show that for small ν and large D the critical times become increasingly dense, leading, in the appropriate regime, to non-analyticities at an increasingly dense set of times---similar to what was observed by Xavier and Hoyos [Phys. Rev. B, 108, 214303 (2023)] in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model with long-range hopping terms.
Dynamical quantum phase transitions reveal singularities in quench dynamics, characterized by the emergence of Loschmidt echo zeros at critical times, which usually exist only in the thermodynamic limit but are absent in finite-size quantum systems. In this Letter, we propose a theoretical scheme to probe Loschmidt echo zeros in finite-size systems by applying a two-step quenching protocol, which offers an experimentally feasible approach to study Loschmidt echo zeros. Using the transverse Ising model as a test bed, we identify that the exact Loschmidt echo zeros can be always accessed by tuning the quench rate, when the quench is across the phase transition point. The associated rate function displays divergence at critical times, accompanying with the change of the dynamical topological order parameter. The critical times are influenced by the quench rate, system size, and momentum modes, embodying the interplay between finite-size effects and critical dynamics. Moreover, the generality of these observations is further confirmed in the XY and Haldane models.
A boundary transfer matrix formulation allows to calculate the Loschmidt echo for one-dimensional quantum systems in the thermodynamic limit. We show that nonanalyticities in the Loschmidt echo and zeros for the Loschmidt amplitude in the complex plane (Fisher zeros) are caused by a crossing of eigenvalues in the spectrum of the transfer matrix. Using a density-matrix renormalization group algorithm applied to these transfer matrices, we numerically investigate the Loschmidt echo and the Fisher zeros for quantum quenches in the XXZ model with a uniform and a staggered magnetic field. We give examples---both in the integrable and the nonintegrable cases---where the Loschmidt echo does not show nonanalyticities although the quench leads across an equilibrium phase transition, and examples where nonanalyticities appear for quenches within the same phase. For a quench to the free fermion point, we analytically show that the Fisher zeros sensitively depend on the initial state and can lie exactly on the real axis already for finite system size. Furthermore, we use bosonization to analyze our numerical results for quenches within the Luttinger liquid phase.
A quantum phase transition is generally thought to imprint distinctive characteristics on the nonequilibrium dynamics of a closed quantum system. Specifically, the Loschmidt echo after a sudden quench to a quantum critical point-measuring the time dependence of the overlap between initial and time-evolved states-is expected to exhibit an accelerated relaxation followed by periodic revivals. We here introduce a new exactly solvable model, the extended Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, the Loschmidt echo of which provides a counterexample. A parallell analysis of the quench dynamics of the three-site spin-interacting XY model allows us to pinpoint the conditions under which a periodic Loschmidt revival actually appears.
In this work we develop the theory of the Loschmidt echo and dynamical phase transitions in noninteracting strongly disordered Fermi systems after a quench. In finite systems the Loschmidt echo displays zeros in the complex time plane that depend on the random potential realization. Remarkably, the zeros coalesce to form a 2D manifold in the thermodynamic limit, atypical for 1D systems, crossing the real axis at a sharply defined critical time. We show that this dynamical phase transition can be understood as a transition in the distribution function of the smallest absolute value of the eigenvalues of the Loschmidt matrix and develop a finite-size scaling theory. Contrary to expectations, the notion of dynamical phase transitions in disordered systems becomes decoupled from the equilibrium Anderson localization transition. Our results highlight the striking qualitative differences of quench dynamics in disordered and nondisordered many-fermion systems.