A quantum critical system described at low energy by a conformal field theory (CFT) and subjected to a time-periodic boundary drive displays multiple dynamical regimes, depending on the drive frequency. We compute the behavior of quantities including the entanglement entropy and Loschmidt echo, confirming analytic predictions from field theory by exact numerics on the transverse field Ising model and demonstrate universality by adding nonintegrable perturbations. The dynamics naturally separate into three regimes: a slow-driving limit, which has an interpretation as multiple quantum quenches with amplitude corrections from CFT; a fast-driving limit, in which the system behaves as though subject to a single quantum quench; and a crossover regime displaying heating. The universal Floquet dynamics in all regimes can be understood using a combination of boundary CFT and Kibble-Zurek scaling arguments.
This work investigates dynamical quantum phase transitions (DQPTs) in a one-dimensional Ising model subjected to a periodically modulated transverse field. In contrast to sudden quenches, we demonstrate that a DQPT can be induced in two distinct ways. First, when the system remains within a given phase--ferromagnetic (FM) or paramagnetic (PM), a resonant periodic drive can trigger a DQPTs when its frequency matches the energy-level transition of the system. This DQPT is intimately connected to the emergence of Floquet topological phases. The timescale for the transition is governed by the perturbation strength
λ′, the critical mode
kc, and its energy gap
Δkc, following the scaling relation
τ∝Δkcλ′−1csckc. Second, for drives across the critical point between the FM and PM phases, low frequencies can always induce DQPT, regardless of resonance. This behavior stems from the degeneracy of the energy-level at the critical point, which ensures that any drive with a frequency lower than the system's intrinsic transition frequency will inevitably excite the system. However, in the high-frequency regime, such excitation will be strongly suppressed, thereby inhibiting the occurrence of DQPTs. This study provides deeper insight into the nonequilibrium dynamics of quantum spin chains.
A phase transition indicates a sudden change in the properties of a large system. For temperature-driven phase transitions this is related to nonanalytic behavior of the free energy density at the critical temperature: The knowledge of the free energy density in one phase is insufficient to predict the properties of the other phase. In this Letter we show that a close analogue of this behavior can occur in the real time evolution of quantum systems, namely nonanalytic behavior at a critical time. We denote such behavior a dynamical phase transition and explore its properties in the transverse-field Ising model. Specifically, we show that the equilibrium quantum phase transition and the dynamical phase transition in this model are intimately related.
In isolated quantum many-body systems periodically driven in time, the asymptotic dynamics at late times can exhibit distinct behavior such as thermalization or dynamical freezing. Understanding the properties of and the convergence towards infinite-time (nonequilibrium) steady states, however, remains a challenging endeavor. We propose a physically motivated Krylov space perspective on Floquet thermalization which offers a natural framework to study rates of convergence towards steady states and, simultaneously, an efficient numerical algorithm to evaluate infinite-time averages of observables within the diagonal ensemble. The effectiveness of our algorithm is demonstrated by applying it to the periodically driven mixed-field Ising model, reaching system sizes of up to 30 spins. Our method successfully resolves the transition between the ergodic and dynamically frozen phases and provides insight into the nature of the Floquet eigenstates across the phase diagram. Furthermore, we show that the long-time behavior is encoded within the localization properties of the Ritz vectors under the Floquet evolution, providing an accurate diagnostic of ergodicity.
Significance Periodically driven “Floquet” systems are nonequilibrium systems whose time translation symmetry can give rise to a rich dynamical phase structure. In the presence of quenched disorder, they can avoid thermalizing to a bland infinite temperature state through a phenomenon known as many-body localization (MBL). The ability of these driven MBL phases to host phenomena forbidden in equilibrium, such as “time crystallinity,” has gained widespread interest in recent years. In this work, we consider the question of the criticality that emerges at the transitions between distinct Floquet MBL phases. By providing a universally applicable picture and applying it to a prototypical driven system, the driven Ising chain, we identify critical points and give an understanding of Floquet criticality in general.
We study entanglement transitions in a periodically driven Ising chain in the presence of an imaginary transverse field $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ as a function of drive frequency ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{D}$. In the high drive amplitude and frequency regime, we find a critical value $\ensuremath{\gamma}={\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{c}$ below which the steady-state half-chain entanglement entropy,
SL/2, scales with chain length
L as ${S}_{L/2}\ensuremath{\sim}lnL$; in contrast, for $\ensuremath{\gamma}>{\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{c}$, it becomes independent of
L. In the small $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ limit, we compute the coefficient, $\ensuremath{\alpha}$, of the
lnL term analytically using a Floquet perturbation theory and trace its origin to the presence of Fisher-Hartwig jump singularities in the correlation function of the driven chain. We also study the frequency dependence of ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{c}$ and show that ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{c}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$ at special drive frequencies; at these frequencies, which we analytically compute,
SL/2 remain independent of
L for all $\ensuremath{\gamma}$. This behavior can be traced to an approximate emergent symmetry of the Floquet Hamiltonian at these drive frequencies which we identify. Finally, we discus the behavior of the driven system at low and intermediate drive frequencies. Our analysis shows the presence of volume law behavior of the entanglement in this regime ${S}_{\ensuremath{\ell}}\ensuremath{\sim}\ensuremath{\ell}$ for small subsystem length $\ensuremath{\ell}\ensuremath{\le}{\ensuremath{\ell}}^{*}({\ensuremath{\omega}}_{D})$. We identify ${\ensuremath{\ell}}^{*}({\ensuremath{\omega}}_{D})$ and tie its existence to the effective long-range nature of the Floquet Hamiltonian of the driven chain for small subsystem size. We discuss the applicability of our results to other integrable non-Hermitian models.