For strongly correlated quantum systems, fundamental questions about the formation and stability of Floquet-Bloch sidebands (FBs) upon periodic driving remain unresolved. Here, we investigate the impact of electron-electron interactions and perturbations in the coherence of the driving on the lifetime of FBs by directly computing time-dependent single-particle spectral functions using exact diagonalization (ED) and matrix product states (MPS). We study interacting metallic and correlated insulating phases in a chain of correlated spinless fermions. At high-frequency driving we obtain clearly separated, long-lived FBs of the full many-body excitation continuum. However, if there is significant overlap of the features, which is more probable in the low-frequency regime, the interactions lead to strong heating, which results in a significant loss of quantum coherence and of the FBs. Similar suppression of FBs is obtained in the presence of noise. The emerging picture is further elucidated by the behavior of real-space single-particle propagators, of the energy gain, and of the momentum distribution function, which is related to a quantum Fisher information that is directly accessible by spectroscopic measurements.
For strongly correlated quantum systems, fundamental questions about the formation and stability of Floquet-Bloch sidebands (FBs) upon periodic driving remain unresolved. Here, we investigate the impact of electron-electron interactions and perturbations in the coherence of the driving on the lifetime of FBs by directly computing time-dependent single-particle spectral functions using exact diagonalization (ED) and matrix product states (MPS). We study interacting metallic and correlated insulating phases in a chain of correlated spinless fermions. At high-frequency driving we obtain clearly separated, long-lived FBs of the full many-body excitation continuum. However, if there is significant overlap of the features, which is more probable in the low-frequency regime, the interactions lead to strong heating, which results in a significant loss of quantum coherence and of the FBs. Similar suppression of FBs is obtained in the presence of noise. The emerging picture is further elucidated by the behavior of real-space single-particle propagators, of the energy gain, and of the momentum distribution function, which is related to a quantum Fisher information that is directly accessible by spectroscopic measurements.
Periodically driven quantum systems provide a versatile platform for engineering and exploring non-equilibrium states of matter that have no equilibrium counterparts– a field commonly re- ferred to as Floquet engineering. The research presented in this thesis addresses the microscopic interpretation of experimental spectroscopic signatures, the stability of these driven states in the presence of strong many-body interactions, and the emergence of novel forms of non-equilibrium criticality encoded in quantum entanglement. The first part of the thesis focuses on the interpretation of time- and angle-resolved photo- emission spectroscopy (tr-ARPES), the primary experimental tool for detecting Floquet–Bloch sidebands (FBs). The measured signal reflects interference between processes occurring both inside the material and in the vacuum. In particular, Floquet-dressed initial states coexist and interfere with Volkov-dressed final states arising from the laser-assisted photoelectric effect (LAPE). Their experimental identification requires careful comparison with theoretical predic- tions. Using graphene as a model Dirac material, we perform a systematic comparison between two theoretical frameworks: the first-order perturbative Born approximation (PB1) and time- dependent nonequilibrium Green’s functions (tdNEGF), and compare them with experimental results. We disentangle intrinsic Floquet states, LAPE, and their interference, and quantify how polarization, incidence angle, and near-surface screening shape the observed spectra. Our findings show that, once matrix elements are included, both methods capture qualitative trends, but tdNEGF is necessary to describe the full energy–momentum-resolved features, including hybridization gaps. While non-interacting systems exhibit well-defined FBs, interacting systems absorb energy and can evolve toward an infinite-temperature state. To study this competition between coherent driving and many-body heating, in the second part we consider a one-dimensional chain of interacting spinless fermions using exact diagonalization (ED) and matrix product state (MPS) methods. We compute time-dependent spectral functions and correlation measures, and compare the spectral width of the many-body excitation continuum with the driving frequency to define low- and high-frequency regimes. In our parameter regime, low-frequency driving leads to strong overlap between Floquet sectors, resulting in rapid heating and loss of coherence. For weakly populated continua, we find a transient timescale for the suppression of FBs. When the driving frequency exceeds the continuum width, FBs are well separated and long-lived. Thefinalpartofthethesisinvestigatesnon-equilibriumphenomenafromaninformation-theoretic perspective. Wereportanewclassofdynamicalphasetransitions,termedtemporalentanglement transitions (TET) characterized by non-analytic reorganizations of the entanglement spectrum, in a periodically driven transverse-field Ising chain. These transitions occur in the spectrum of the entanglement Hamiltonian and are signaled by dynamical spontaneous symmetry breaking, marked by the closure of the Schmidt gap and parity flips. These transitions remain invisible to conventional local observables. Finite-size scaling reveals that TET belong to a universality class with a correlation-length exponent ν = 1, mirroring equilibrium Ising universality despite their purely dynamical origin.
In this thesis we numerically study non-equilibrium phenomena in one-dimensional quantum many-body systems. We discuss extensions of the concepts of spectral functions and of the optical conductivity to time-dependent non-equilibrium setups and compute these quantities by means of matrix product state (MPS)-based methods. In a first application we study the effect of a spin-selective particle-hole-like excitation on a Hubbard model with an additional magnetic superstructure. Following the excitation, this model exhibits a stable charge density, as well as a stable spin density pattern mirroring the superstructure. For interacting systems we find an additional in-gap signal in the spectral function in the spin direction opposite to the one we applied the excitation in, which also persists over time. Our results are confirmed by a computation of the corresponding optical conductivity. We interpret our results as a trace of an exciton, which we support by an analysis in the atomic limit, and therefore refer to our findings as a peculiar spinful exciton. In contrast to many other setups, no long-range Coulomb term is needed for this exciton to form. Second, we apply the same calculus to compute non-equilibrium spectral functions of a Floquet-driven system of interacting spinless fermions in the charge density wave (CDW) Mott insulator phase, where we model the driving through a Peierls substitution ansatz. We find good agreement of our results with computations from an effective model obtained from Floquet theory, as well as Floquet side bands. These, however, do not show at all times as expected. Furthermore, another in-gap signal occurs, that is somewhat reminiscent of free particles, which goes hand in hand with a melting of the CDW pattern.
We present a detailed study of the real-time dynamics and spectral properties of the one-dimensional fermionic Hubbard model at infinite temperature. Using tensor network simulations in Liouville space, we compute the single-particle Green's function and analyze its dynamics across a broad range of interaction strengths. To complement the time-domain approach, we develop a high-resolution Chebyshev expansion method within the density matrix formalism, enabling direct access to spectral functions in the frequency domain. In the non-interacting limit, we derive exact analytical expressions for the Green's function, providing a benchmark for our numerical methods. As interactions are introduced, we observe a transition in the spectral function from a sharp peak at the free dispersion to a broadened two-band structure associated with hole and doublon excitations. These features are well captured by a Hubbard-I mean-field approximation, even at intermediate coupling. At infinite interaction strength (U=∞), we exploit a determinant representation of the Green's function to access both real-time and spectral properties. In this regime, the system retains a sharp, cosine-like momentum dispersion in frequency space, while the dynamics display nontrivial light-cone spreading with sub-ballistic scaling. Our results demonstrate that strong correlations and nontrivial quantum coherence can persist even at infinite temperature.
An intriguing regime of universal charge transport at high entropy density has been proposed for periodically driven interacting one-dimensional systems with Bloch bands separated by a large single-particle band gap. For weak interactions, a simple picture based on well-defined Floquet quasiparticles suggests that the system should host a quasisteady state current that depends only on the populations of the system's Floquet-Bloch bands and their associated quasienergy winding numbers. Here we show that such topological transport persists into the strongly interacting regime where the single-particle lifetime becomes shorter than the drive period. Analytically, we show that the value of the current is insensitive to interaction-induced band renormalizations and lifetime broadening when certain conditions are met by the system's nonequilibrium distribution function. We show that these conditions correspond to a quasisteady state. We support these predictions through numerical simulation of a system of strongly interacting fermions in a periodically modulated chain of Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev dots. Our paper establishes universal transport at high entropy density as a robust far from equilibrium topological phenomenon, which can be readily realized with cold atoms in optical lattices. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
We propose a method to study the time evolution of correlated electrons driven by a harmonic perturbation. Combining Floquet formalism to include the time-dependent field and cluster perturbation theory to solve the many-body problem in the presence of short-range correlations, we treat the electron double dressing, by photons and by $e\text{\ensuremath{-}}e$ interactions, on the same footing. We apply the method to an extended Hubbard chain at half occupation, and we show that in the regime of small field frequency and for given values of field strength, the zero-mode Floquet band is no longer gapped and the system recovers a metallic state. Our results are indicative of an omnipresent mechanism for insulator-to-metal transitions in one-dimensional systems.
The presence of quantum scars, athermal eigenstates of a many-body Hamiltonian with finite-energy density, leads to an absence of ergodicity and long-time coherent dynamics starting from initial states that have a high overlap with scars as experimentally observed in a chain of ultracold Rydberg atoms. We show, via study of a periodically driven Rydberg chain, that the drive frequency acts as a tuning parameter for several reentrant transitions between ergodic and weak ergodicity breaking regimes. The former regime shows rapid thermalization of correlation functions and absence of scars in the Floquet spectrum of the system. The latter regime, in contrast, has scars; they lead to long-time coherent dynamics of correlation functions. We provide an analytical explanation of the existence of these regimes by going beyond a high-frequency Magnus expansion and using a novel perturbative approach valid at large drive amplitudes to derive a Floquet Hamiltonian which qualitatively explains the behavior of the driven system at arbitrary frequencies. We also discuss experiments involving finite Rydberg chains which can validate our theory. Our results demonstrate the possibility of drive-frequency-induced tuning between ergodic and weak ergodicity breaking dynamics in a disorder-free quantum many-body system.