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arXiv:2303.12894

Signatures of a quantum phase transition on a single-mode bosonic model

Grigoriou, Emmanouil, Carlos Navarrete–Benlloch

Published Mar 22, 2023• 1 citation

Abstract

Equilibrium phase transitions usually emerge from the microscopic behavior of many-body systems and are associated to interesting phenomena such as the generation of long-range order and spontaneous symmetry breaking. They can be defined through the non-analytic behavior of thermodynamic potentials in the thermodynamic limit. This limit is obtained when the number of available configurations of the system approaches infinity, which is conventionally associated to spatially-extended systems formed by an infinite number of degrees of freedom (infinite number of particles or modes). Taking previous ideas to the extreme, we argue that such a limit can be defined even in non-extended systems, providing a specific example in the simplest form of a single-mode bosonic Hamiltonian. In contrast to previous non-extended models, the simplicity of our model allows us to find approximate analytical expressions that can be confronted with precise numerical simulations in all the parameter space, particularly as close to the thermodynamic limit as we want. We are thus able to show that the system undergoes a change displaying all the characteristics of a second-order phase transition as a function of a control parameter. We derive critical exponents and scaling laws revealing the universality class of the model, which coincide with that of more elaborate non-extended models such as the quantum Rabi or Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick models. Analyzing our model, we are also able to offer insights into the features of this type of phase transitions, by showing that the thermodynamic and classical limits coincide. In other words, quantum fluctuations must be tamed in order for the system to undergo a true phase transition.

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2303.12894

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Phase transitions have recently been formulated in the time domain of quantum many-body systems, a phenomenon dubbed dynamical quantum phase transitions (DPTs), whose phenomenology is often divided in two types. One refers to distinct phases according to long-time averaged order parameters, while the other is focused on the nonanalytical behavior emerging in the rate function of the Loschmidt echo. Here we show that such DPTs can be found in systems with few degrees of freedom; i.e., they can take place without resorting to the traditional thermodynamic limit. We illustrate this by showing the existence of the two types of DPTs in a quantum Rabi model---a system involving a spin-

\frac{1}{2}

and a bosonic mode. The dynamical criticality appears in the limit of an infinitely large ratio of the spin frequency with respect to the bosonic one. We determine its dynamical phase diagram and study the long-time averaged order parameters, whose semiclassical approximation yields a jump at the transition point. We find the critical times at which the rate function becomes nonanalytical, showing its associated critical exponent as well as the corrections introduced by a finite frequency ratio. Our results open the door for the study of DPTs without the need to scale up the number of components, thus allowing for their investigation in well controllable systems.

Abstract We explore an extended quantum Rabi model describing the interaction between a two-mode bosonic field and a three-level atom. Quantum phase transitions of this few degree of freedom model is found when the ratio η of the atom energy scale to the bosonic field frequency approaches infinity. An analytical solution is provided when the two lowest-energy levels are degenerate. According to it, we recognize that the phase diagram of the model consists of three regions: one normal phase and two superradiant phases. The quantum phase transitions between the normal phase and the two superradiant phases are of second order relating to the spontaneous breaking of the discrete Z 2 symmetry. On the other hand, the quantum phase transition between the two different superradiant phases is discontinuous with a phase boundary line relating to the continuous U (1) symmetry. For a large enough but finite η , the scaling function and critical exponents are derived analytically and verified numerically, from which the universality class of the model is identified.

We report a kind of phase transition which takes place in isolated quantum systems with a discrete symmetry. Different phases are separated by a critical energy and recognized by means of an order parameter, which can be experimentally measured. Below the critical energy, the symmetry is broken and the equilibrium state is non-thermal, keeping large amounts of memory of the initial condition. Above, the symmetry is restored and a thermal equilibrium state is reached. We identify two universality classes, one showing a second-order phase transition and represented by the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model, and another showing a first-order phase transition and represented by the Dicke model. This work is dedicated to the memory of Joaquín Retamosa .

The aim of this work is to develop a technique for identifying quantum phase transitions which does not rely on the existence of a thermodynamic limit, for studies in finite systems. The approach we adopt exploits an exact mapping of the spectrum of a many-body integrable system, which admits an exact Bethe ansatz solution, into the quasi-exactly solvable spectrum of a one-particle Schrodinger operator. Bifurcations of the minima for the potential of the Schrodinger operator determine critical ground-state couplings. By considering the behaviour of certain ground-state correlation functions, these may be identified as quantum phase transitions in the many-body integrable system with finite particle number. We study two particular examples of bosonic Hamiltonians which admit second-order transitions, and discuss further applications.

We investigate dynamical quantum phase transitions (DQPTs) in the extended Agassi model following sudden quenches of same level pairing (

Σ

), monopole-monopole (

χ

) and cross level pairing (

Λ

) strengths. Using exact diagonalization, we characterize the non-equilibrium dynamics through the Loschmidt echo and intensive return-rate function. Quenches across equilibrium phase boundaries produce cusp-like structures in the return rate that shows non-analyticities with increasing system size. Equilibrium finite size to large scaling identifies the

χ

-driven transition as a second order phase transition similar to mean-field, Dicke, and Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) models critical behaviour with the exponent of the order parameter

β\simeq 1/2

, while the

Σ

- and

Λ

-driven transitions are first order. We further characterize the associated dynamical singularities through a local scaling exponent

α

, with

α_χ\simeq 2/3

,

α_Λ\simeq 1/3

, and

α_Σ\simeq 3/2

of all three parameters. The distinct scaling behaviours across the parameter channels show that dynamical criticality is not determined solely by the equilibrium order of the transition, revealing multiple dynamical scaling regimes. These non-analyticities are associated with the Fisher zeros of the Loschmidt amplitude, which cross the real time axis at critical times and the time derivatives of the return-rate function to characterize the order of DQPTs within the extended Agassi model.

Phase transitions are defined, and the concepts of order parameter and spontaneously broken symmetry are discussed. Simple models for magnetic phase transitions are introduced, together with some experimental examples. Critical exponents and the notion of universality are defined, and the consequences of the scaling assumptions are derived. Phase transitions and order parameters It is a fact of everyday experience that matter in thermodynamic equilibrium exists in different macroscopic phases. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine life on Earth without all three phases of water. A typical sample of matter, for example, has the temperature–pressure phase diagram presented in Fig. 1.1: by changing either of the two parameters the system may be brought into a solid, liquid, or gas phase. The change of phase may be gradual or abrupt. In the latter case, the phase transition takes place at well defined values of the parameters that determine the phase boundary. Phase transitions are defined as points in the parameter space where the thermodynamic potential becomes non-analytic. Such a non-analyticity can arise only in the thermodynamic limit, when the size of the system is assumed to be infinite. In a finite system the partition function of any system is a finite sum of analytic functions of its parameters, and is therefore always analytic. A sharp phase transition is thus a mathematical idealization, albeit one that describes the reality extremely well. Macroscopic systems typically contain ∼ 10 23 degrees of freedom, and as such are very close to being in the thermodynamic limit. The phase boundaries in Fig. 1.1, for example, for this reason represent reproducible physical quantities.