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arXiv:2405.13876 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Disorder enhanced thermalization in interacting many-particle system

Chakradhar Rangi, Herbert F. Fotso, Hanna Terletska, Juana Moreno, Ka-Ming Tam

Published Apr 25, 2025• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We introduce an extension of the nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory to incorporate the effects of static random disorder in the dynamics of a many-particle system by integrating out different disorder configurations resulting in an effective time-dependent density-density interaction. We use this method to study the nonequilibrium transient dynamics of a system described by the Fermi Anderson-Hubbard model following an interaction and disorder quench. The method recovers the solution of the disorder-free case for which the system exhibits qualitatively distinct dynamical behaviors in the weak-coupling (prethermalization) and strong-coupling regimes (collapse-and-revival oscillations). However, we find that weak random disorder promotes thermalization. In the weak-coupling regime, the jump in the quasiparticle weight in the prethermal regime is suppressed by random disorder, while in the strong-coupling regime, random disorder reduces the amplitude of the quasiparticle weight oscillations. These results highlight the importance of disorder in the dynamics of realistic many-particle systems.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.111.l161122

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We introduce an extension of the nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory to incorporate the effects of static random disorder in the dynamics of a many-particle system by integrating out different disorder configurations resulting in an effective time-dependent density-density interaction. We use this method to study the nonequilibrium transient dynamics of a system described by the Fermi Anderson-Hubbard model following an interaction and disorder quench. The method recovers the solution of the disorder-free case for which the system exhibits qualitatively distinct dynamical behaviors in the weak-coupling (prethermalization) and strong-coupling regimes (collapse-and-revival oscillations). However, we find that weak random disorder promotes thermalization. In the weak-coupling regime, the jump in the quasiparticle weight in the prethermal regime is suppressed by random disorder, while in the strong-coupling regime, random disorder reduces the amplitude of the quasiparticle weight oscillations. These results highlight the importance of disorder in the dynamics of realistic many-particle systems.
Although most studies of strongly correlated systems away from equilibrium have focused on clean systems, it is well known that disorder may significantly modify observed properties in various nontrivial ways. The nonequilibrium interplay of interaction and disorder in these systems thus requires further investigation. In the present paper, we use the recently developed nonequilibrium DMFT+CPA\text{DMFT}+\text{CPA}DMFT+CPA embedding scheme, that combines both the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) and the coherent potential approximation (CPA) nonequilibrium extensions, to characterize the relaxation and the thermalization of a disordered interacting system described by the Anderson-Hubbard model under an interaction quench. The system, initially in equilibrium at a given temperature, has the interaction abruptly switched from zero to a finite value at a given time. To investigate the role of disorder, we use our effective medium approach to calculate, for different values of the final interaction and of the disorder strength, the distribution functions as the system evolves in time. This allows us to determine the effective temperature after the quench and to analyze the effects of disorder on the thermalization for various interaction strengths. We find that, for moderate interactions after the interaction quench, disorder can tune the final temperature of the system across a broad range of values with increased disorder strength leading to lower effective temperature.
Correlated, disordered lattice fermion systems out of equilibrium have been understudied, at least in part for lack of tools to study them. The development of a new method, the NE-DMFT+CPA, is explicated, for investigating the properties of these systems. This method combines DMFT and the CPA using the Kadanoff-Baym-Keldysh contour-time formalism to study the dynamics of interacting disordered systems out of equilibrium. The method is detailed, then applied to the case of the Anderson-Hubbard model: first to replicate well-known equilibrium results, then to study the case of the model under the effect of an interaction quench. Here the effect of disorder on the relaxation of the system is studied by the time-dependence of the energies and momentum distribution function, which display the screening of the Coulomb interaction by disorder. It is then used to examine the thermalization of the same system by using the fluctuation-dissipation theorem to extract the distribution function and thereby the effective temperature after relaxation. This allows the characterization of the effect of the interplay of the disorder strength and the Coulomb interaction on the thermalization behavior. It is found that the heating of the system due to the quench is mitigated by stronger disorder. Finally, current progress of the work to apply the method to binary alloy disorder and an interaction ramp is summarized. Binary disorder appears to have the effect of damping the initial transient of the potential energy more strongly than the comparable uniformly-disordered system. The relaxation of the energies under the effect of an interaction ramp suggests that the crossing of the kinetic energies may be affected by the form of the time-dependent interaction.
We discuss a nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field framework for simulating inhomogeneous Hubbard models with local disorders. Our approach treats electron interactions and disorders on equal footing, by considering only local dynamical fluctuations. The theory reduces to nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory in the presence of only electron-electron interactions and to the coherent potential approximation in noninteracting systems with disorders. Both time-dependent and steady-state problems are treated by implementing the theory on the three-branch Kadanoff-Baym contour and two-branch Schwinger-Keldysh contour, respectively. Benchmarks on a eight-site cube show that the method yields rather accurate spectral functions in both the weakly and strongly interacting regimes. In a cubic lattice, we demonstrate energy conservation after an interaction quench and thermalization after just a few hopping times in both clean and disordered systems. As an application, we study transport through a serial double quantum-dot sandwiched between two leads, focusing on the current and dot occupations after a voltage quench.
We develop the nonequilibrium extension of bosonic dynamical mean-field theory and a Nambureal-time strong-coupling perturbative impurity solver. In contrast to Gutzwiller mean-field theory andstrong-coupling perturbative approaches, nonequilibrium bosonic dynamical mean-field theory capturesnot only dynamical transitions but also damping and thermalization effects at finite temperature. We applythe formalism to quenches in the Bose-Hubbard model, starting from both the normal and the Bose-condensed phases. Depending on the parameter regime, one observes qualitatively different dynamicalproperties, such as rapid thermalization, trapping in metastable superfluid or normal states, as well aslong-lived or strongly damped amplitude oscillations. We summarize our results in nonequilibrium“phase diagrams” that map out the different dynamical regimes.
The dynamics of interacting bosons in one dimension following the sudden switching on of a weak disordered potential is investigated. On time scales before quasiparticles scatter (prethermalized regime), the dephasing from random elastic forward scattering causes all correlations to decay exponentially fast, but the system remains far from thermal equilibrium. For longer times, the combined effect of disorder and interactions gives rise to inelastic scattering and to thermalization. A novel quantum kinetic equation accounting for both disorder and interactions is employed to study the dynamics. Thermalization turns out to be most effective close to the superfluid-Bose-glass critical point where nonlinearities become more and more important. The numerically obtained thermalization times are found to agree well with analytic estimates.
We use nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory to study the time evolution of the fermionic Hubbard model after an interaction quench. Both in the weak-coupling and in the strong-coupling regime the system is trapped in quasistationary states on intermediate time scales. These two regimes are separated by a sharp crossover at U(c)dyn=0.8 in units of the bandwidth, where fast thermalization occurs. Our results indicate a dynamical phase transition which should be observable in experiments on trapped fermionic atoms.