The recursion method, which solves coupled Heisenberg equations in a Lanczos operator basis, has recently emerged as a powerful nonperturbative tool for computing dynamical correlation functions in strongly correlated two- and three-dimensional quantum many-body systems. Motivated by this success, we investigate whether the method can be extended to expectation values of observables following a quantum quench. We find that such an extension encounters an obstacle absent in the computation of dynamical correlation functions. The latter are fully determined by the Lanczos coefficients b_n b n , which in generic systems exhibit universal behavior, enabling reliable extrapolation from the first few dozens of explicitly computed coefficients. In contrast, quench dynamics additionally requires “quench coefficients” c_n c n , defined as overlaps of Lanczos basis operators with the initial state. We show that, unlike the Lanczos coefficients, the quench coefficients exhibit no universal structure and cannot be reliably extrapolated, thereby limiting the time up to which the method yields accurate results. The behavior of quench coefficients is highly state-dependent, ranging from decaying to irregular or even growing sequences; typically, the less regular the sequence c_n c n , the shorter the accessible timescale. Nevertheless, for favorable initial states, the method remains competitive with state-of-the-art approaches. Moreover, its symbolic implementation allows a single computation to be reused across different Hamiltonian parameters and initial states, making it particularly advantageous in studies requiring extensive scans over Hamiltonian parameters or initial states.
The recursion method, which solves coupled Heisenberg equations in a Lanczos operator basis, has recently emerged as a powerful nonperturbative tool for computing dynamical correlation functions in strongly correlated two- and three-dimensional quantum many-body systems. Motivated by this success, we investigate whether the method can be extended to expectation values of observables following a quantum quench. We find that such an extension encounters an obstacle absent in the computation of dynamical correlation functions. The latter are fully determined by the Lanczos coefficients b_n b n , which in generic systems exhibit universal behavior, enabling reliable extrapolation from the first few dozens of explicitly computed coefficients. In contrast, quench dynamics additionally requires “quench coefficients” c_n c n , defined as overlaps of Lanczos basis operators with the initial state. We show that, unlike the Lanczos coefficients, the quench coefficients exhibit no universal structure and cannot be reliably extrapolated, thereby limiting the time up to which the method yields accurate results. The behavior of quench coefficients is highly state-dependent, ranging from decaying to irregular or even growing sequences; typically, the less regular the sequence c_n c n , the shorter the accessible timescale. Nevertheless, for favorable initial states, the method remains competitive with state-of-the-art approaches. Moreover, its symbolic implementation allows a single computation to be reused across different Hamiltonian parameters and initial states, making it particularly advantageous in studies requiring extensive scans over Hamiltonian parameters or initial states.
We report an implementation of the recursion method that addresses quantum many-body dynamics in the nonperturbative regime. The method essentially amounts to constructing a Lanczos basis in the space of operators and solving coupled Heisenberg equations in this basis. The reported implementation has two key ingredients: a computer-algebraic routine for the symbolic calculation of nested commutators and a procedure to extrapolate the sequence of Lanczos coefficients according to the universal operator growth hypothesis. We apply the method to calculate infinite-temperature correlation functions for spin-1/2 systems on one- and two-dimensional lattices. In two dimensions the accessible timescale is large enough to essentially embrace the relaxation to equilibrium. The method allows one to accurately calculate transport coefficients. As an illustration, we compute the diffusion constant for the transverse-field Ising model on a square lattice.
This cumulative doctoral thesis, based on the works [P1–P5], addresses various topical concepts as well as foundational questions in the nonequilibrium physics of quantum many-body systems. Publication [P1] concerns itself with the question of time’s arrow in quantum mechanics. Based on the recursion method, we attribute autocorrelation functions of few-body observables at infinite temperature (almost) monotonously decreasing functions, constructed from temporal derivatives of the correlation function that indicate a directed approach to equilibrium. We numerically find that in chaotic models, these constructions comprise a notion of simplicity of the underlying dynamics. Addressing the ubiquity of simple relaxation dynamics in otherwise complex chaotic systems, in Ref. [P3] we introduce a scheme based on Lanczos coefficients to approximate correlation functions in the thermodynamic limit. Examining several pertinent condensed-matter type models and benchmarking with state-of-the-art numerics, we find the method to yield good results already for a low number of included Lanczos coefficients, provided that the latter exhibit a smooth and increasing structure. We underpin these findings with analytical arguments on the method’s applicability. Ref. [P2] provides an estimate on the equilibration time of such infinite-temperature correlation functions in the thermodynamic limit. Similarly to Ref. [P3], we find the estimate to capture the equilibration times very reasonably, given that the corresponding Lanczos coefficients exhibit a smooth growth. Substantiated by analytical considerations, the convergence of the estimate implies that equilibration timescales of the relaxation processes are finite and conceivably short. In Ref. [P5] we scrutinize the interpretative power of the Lanczos coefficients concerning the system’s integrability or chaoticity, operator growth and the indicativeness of physical behavior. To this end, we analytically deter- mine the Lanczos coefficients for a Majorana observable in a strictly quadratic model and illustrate that within this model any structure of the Lanczos coefficients may be realised. Different to the other works, Ref. [P4] is not cast in the language of the recursion method. Focusing on the full eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, it explores the connection between thermalization dynamics of multi-point correlation functions and the scaling of thermal free cumulants in setups mimicking a system-bath situation.
In this work, we study the non-equilibrium dynamics of low-dimensional strongly correlated quantum systems, which in our case are generated by sudden and time-dependent quantum quenches. Such non-equilibrium dynamics are a particularly difficult problem, because the time evolution of the initial many-body quantum state, which is governed by the post-quench Hamiltonian, is highly non-trivial. On top of that, applying an operator to this many-body quantum state in order to calculate its expectation values, typically creates an intricate set of excitations. Throughout the thesis, we furthermore contrast the results that we have obtained using exact numerical methods for two microscopic models, namely the Heisenberg and Fermi-Hubbard chains, with results derived from the Luttinger liquid theory, which, in equilibrium, describes the universal behavior of the two models.In the second part of the thesis, we reduce the dimensionality even further and employ complementary numerical and analytical tools to examine the unusual non-equilibrium behavior of a ring-shaped quantum impurity hosting interacting spin-less fermions.
We present an expansion of a many-body correlation function in a sum of pseudomodes: exponents with complex frequencies that encompass both decay and oscillations. The pseudomode expansion emerges in the framework of the Heisenberg version of the recursion method. This method essentially solves Heisenberg equations in a Lanczos tridiagonal basis constructed in the Krylov space of a given observable. To obtain pseudomodes, we first add artificial dissipation satisfying the dissipative generalization of the universal operator growth hypothesis, and then take the limit of the vanishing dissipation strength. Fast convergence of the pseudomode expansion is facilitated by the localization in the Krylov space, which is generic in the presence of dissipation and can survive the limit of the vanishing dissipation strength. As an illustration, we present pseudomode expansions of infinite-temperature autocorrelation functions in the quantum Ising and XX spin-1/2 models on the square lattice. It turns out that it is enough to take a few first pseudomodes to obtain a good approximation to the correlation function.
We present a symbolic implementation of the recursion method for dynamical correlations and transport in fermionic systems on one-, two-, and three-dimensional lattices. The implementation is applicable in the strongly correlated regime, yields results directly in the thermodynamic limit, and covers all time scales, from short times through the thermalization time to the late-time asymptotics. Focusing on two paradigmatic models -- interacting spinless fermions and the Hubbard model -- we confirm the universal operator growth hypothesis in the fermionic case, compute infinite-temperature current-current autocorrelation functions, and determine the charge diffusion constant and the high-temperature conductivity. The diffusion constant is obtained in both the perturbative and the nonperturbative regime of the interaction strength, and we locate the boundary between them. We compare our approach with the Majorana propagation method, which converges up to intermediate times and agrees with ours where converged. Our results highlight a symbolic computational paradigm in which the most expensive step is performed once, producing reusable symbolic output that yields physical observables for arbitrary model parameters.
The study of quantum dynamics is an increasingly important aspect of atomic, molecular and optical physics, as well as condensed-matter physics and other disciplines. It is essential in order to understand non-equilibrium phenomena which do not fit within the framework of equilibrium thermodynamics, such as many-body localization, dynamical quantum phase transitions, and non-equilibrium steady states in driven-dissipative systems. However, the exact calculation of dynamical observables is extremely difficult in general for several reasons, which makes it challenging for theoretical predictions and analyses to keep pace with rapidly advancing experiments. In this thesis I use and develop several computational methods to investigate the dynamics of quantum many-body systems, with the two goals of better understanding the evolution of local observables and correlation functions in spin and Fermion systems as well as creating and testing more effective numerical methods for solving quantum dynamics problems. I explore quantum dynamics by using Hamiltonian parameter quenches in several commonly-used models in AMO physics and elsewhere: the Fermi-Hubbard model, the XXZ model, and the transverse-Ising model. The first represents a system of short-range interacting Fermions, while the latter two represent spin systems with different spin-spin couplings and magnetic field terms. All of these models can be realized in current experiments. First, I derive an exact solution for an extreme interaction quench in the Fermi-Hubbard model, from a strongly-interacting initial state to a noninteracting final Hamiltonian. From this result I show that there are nontrivial transient connected correlations, despite the fact that the system has very high temperature and a noninteracting Hamiltonian. Those features would suppress such correlations in equilibrium, but the dynamical correlations are still significant. Then, I develop and examine two numerical methods for solving dynamics of the spin expectation values and correlation functions in the transverse-Ising and XXZ models. Both methods rely on approximating a thermodynamically large system with a much smaller and more computationally tractable cluster of lattice sites, or a series of clusters. The first method is a dynamical numerical linked cluster expansion (NLCE). NLCEs have already been used successfully on systems in thermodynamic equilibrium, and I extended the technique to directly compute the dynamics of an observable after a quantum quench. I review the general NLCE method, describe my dynamical variant of it, and compute the quench dynamics of spin and correlation observables in the transverse-Ising and XXZ models. The second method, which I term the adaptive-boundary cluster method, relies on recently refined bounds on information propagation in quantum systems to choose a cluster of lattice sites that minimizes the finite size error bound of a dynamical computation. I briefly review these bounds, and describe a new algorithm which uses them to construct a cluster whose boundary is chosen according to a related error estimate. Such an adaptive-boundary cluster has the property that there exists a computable upper bound on the finite size error of observables measured at the cluster center, and this error bound is nearly minimal when compared to that of other clusters of the same size. I then compute the quench dynamics of spin and correlation observables in the transverse-Ising model using the adaptive boundary clusters. I apply this method to both uniform and strongly disordered systems. To evaluate the effectiveness of both dynamical NLCE and adaptive-boundary clusters, I compare the results obtained using them to results from a standard and general purpose numerical method: exact solvers applied a rectangular cluster with periodic boundary conditions. Both of the new methods usually converge faster and are more accurate than the standard method for comparable cluster sizes. This thesis illustrates that choosing numerical methods which take advantage of the geometric and entanglement structure of the initial state and Hamiltonian can substantially enhance our ability to study quantum dynamics, by reducing the computational cost of numerically exact solutions. I conclude with a discussion of various avenues for future research to build on this work.