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arXiv:2011.01662 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Excited-state quantum phase transitions

Pavel Cejnar, Pavel Stránský, Michal Macek, Michal Kloc

Published Jan 26, 2021• 122 citations
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Abstract

Abstract We review the effects of excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) in interacting many-body systems with finite numbers of collective degrees of freedom. We classify typical ESQPT signatures in the spectra of energy eigenstates with respect to the underlying classical dynamics and outline a variety of quantum systems in which they occur. We describe thermodynamic and dynamic consequences of ESQPTs, like those in microcanonical thermodynamics, quantum quench dynamics, and in the response to nearly adiabatic or periodic driving. We hint at some generalizations of the ESQPT concept in periodic lattices and in resonant tunneling systems.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8121/abdfe8

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Abstract We review the effects of excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) in interacting many-body systems with finite numbers of collective degrees of freedom. We classify typical ESQPT signatures in the spectra of energy eigenstates with respect to the underlying classical dynamics and outline a variety of quantum systems in which they occur. We describe thermodynamic and dynamic consequences of ESQPTs, like those in microcanonical thermodynamics, quantum quench dynamics, and in the response to nearly adiabatic or periodic driving. We hint at some generalizations of the ESQPT concept in periodic lattices and in resonant tunneling systems.
We study dynamical phase transitions (DPTs) in quantum many-body systems with infinite-range interaction, and present a theory connecting the two kinds of known DPTs (sometimes referred to as DPTs-I and DPTs-II) with the concept of excited-state quantum phase transition (ESQPT), traditionally found in collective models. We show that DPTs-I appear as a manifestation of symmetry restoration after a quench from the broken-symmetry phase, the limits between these two phases being demarcated precisely by an ESQPT. We describe the order parameters of DPTs-I with a generalization of the standard microcanonical ensemble incorporating the information of two additional conserved charges identifying the corresponding phase. We also show that DPTs-I are linked to a mechanism of information erasure brought about by the ESQPT, and quantify this information loss with the statistical ensemble that we propose. Finally, we show analytically the main mechanism for DPTs-II is forbidden in these systems for quenches leading a broken-symmetry initial state to the same broken-symmetry phase, on one side of the ESQPT, and we provide a formulation of DPTs-II depending on the side of the ESQPT where the quench ends. We analyze the connections between various indicators of DPTs-II. Our results are numerically illustrated in the infinite-range transverse-field Ising model and are applicable to a large class of collective quantum systems satisfying a set of conditions.
Excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) strongly influence the spectral properties of collective many-body quantum systems, changing degeneracy patterns in different quantum phases. Level degeneracies in turn affect the system's dynamics. We analyze the degeneracy dependence on the size of two-level boson models with a u(n+1)u(n+1)u(n+1) dynamical algebra, where nnn is the number of collective degrees of freedom. Below the ESQPT critical energy of these models, the energy gap between neighboring levels that belong to different symmetry sectors gets close to zero as the system size increases. We report and explain why this gap goes to zero exponentially for systems with one collective degree of freedom but algebraically in models with more than one degree of freedom. As a consequence, we show that the infinite-time average of out-of-time-order correlators is an ESQPT order parameter in finite systems with n=1n=1n=1, but in systems with n>1n>1n>1, this average only works as an order parameter in the mean-field limit.
Identifying dynamical signatures of excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) in experimentally realizable quantum many-body systems is helpful for understanding the dynamical effects of ESQPTs. In such systems, the highly controllable spinor Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) offer an exceptional platform to study ESQPTs. In this work, we investigate the dynamical characteristics of the ESQPT in spin-1 BEC by means of the Loschmidt echo spectrum. The Loschmidt echo spectrum is an extension of the well-known Loschmidt echo and defined as the overlaps between the evolved state and the excited states of the initial Hamiltonian. We show that both the time-evolved and long-time-averaged Loschmidt echo spectrum undergo a remarkable change as the system passes through the critical point of the ESQPT. Moreover, the particular behavior exhibited by the Loschmidt echo spectrum at the critical point stands as a dynamical detector for probing the ESQPT. We further demonstrate how to capture the features of the ESQPT by using the energy distribution associated with the Loschmidt echo spectrum for time-evolved and long-time-averaged cases, respectively. Our findings contribute to a further verification of the usefulness of the Loschmidt echo spectrum for witnessing various quantum phase transitions in many-body systems and provide a different way to experimentally examine the dynamical consequences of ESQPTs.
Using the Husimi quasiprobability distribution, we investigate the phase space signatures of excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) in the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick and coupled top models. We show that the ESQPT is evinced by the dynamics of the Husimi function, that exhibits a distinct time dependence in the different ESQPT phases. We also discuss how to identify the ESQPT signatures from the long-time averaged Husimi function and its associated marginal distributions. Moreover, from the calculated second moment and Wherl entropy of the long-time averaged Husimi function, we estimate the critical points of the ESQPT in both models, obtaining a good agreement with analytical (mean field) results. We provide a firm evidence that phase space methods are both a new probe for the detection and a valuable tool for the study of ESQPTs.
Studying the implications and characterizations of the excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) would enable us to understand various phenomena observed in quantum many-body systems. In this work, we delve into the affects and characterizations of the ESQPTs in the anharmonic Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model by means of the entropy of the quantum work distribution. The entropy of the work distribution measures the complexity of the work distribution and behaves as a valuable tool for analyzing nonequilibrium work statistics. We show that the entropy of the work distribution captures salient signatures of the underlying ESQPTs in the model. In particular, a detailed analysis of the scaling behavior of the entropy verifies that it not only acts as a witness of the ESQPTs but also reveals the difference between different types of ESQPTs. We further demonstrate that the work distribution entropy also behaves as a powerful tool for understanding the features and differences of ESQPTs in the energy space. Our results provide further evidence of the usefulness of the entropy of the work distribution for investigating various phase transitions in quantum many-body systems and open up a promising way for experimentally exploring the signatures of ESQPTs.
Excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) generalize the concept of quantum phase transitions to excited levels. Here we investigate how such ESQPTs can emerge in Kerr nonlinear oscillators, where a bosonic mode with a Kerr nonlinearity is subject to both coherent (one-photon) and parametric (two-photon) driving. We determine the structure and properties of the complete phase diagram by defining proper dimensionless parameters. Rich phases and phase transitions exist in the phase diagram, including phases with two or four critical energies above the ground-state level and first-order quantum phase transitions. We characterize the ESQPTs by singularities in the density of states, which show universal logarithmic divergence or discontinuity at the critical energies. Furthermore, we find that observables such as the photon number also exhibit singular behaviors at the critical energies and obey scaling laws. These results may extend our understanding of the driven Kerr oscillator and ESQPTs in finite-component systems.