Determining the dynamics of interacting integrable many-particle quantum systems at finite times after homogeneous quantum quenches is a long-standing challenge. We present a Monte Carlo sampling scheme that numerically evaluates the Lehmann representation for time-dependent expectation values of local operators, allowing us to access system sizes and times significantly beyond the reach of existing methods. The approach accommodates both the full Lehmann sum and the Quench Action formalism. We benchmark against exact results for non-interacting lattice and continuum models and short-time results at weak interactions, finding excellent agreement. We apply the method to quantum quenches from a Bose-Einstein condensate in the repulsive Lieb-Liniger model and determine the time evolution of the order parameter for a wide range of interaction strengths. We discuss the emergence of a "sign problem" for more general dynamical correlators and setups.
Determining the dynamics of interacting integrable many-particle quantum systems at finite times after homogeneous quantum quenches is a long-standing challenge. We present a Monte Carlo sampling scheme that numerically evaluates the Lehmann representation for time-dependent expectation values of local operators, allowing us to access system sizes and times significantly beyond the reach of existing methods. The approach accommodates both the full Lehmann sum and the Quench Action formalism. We benchmark against exact results for non-interacting lattice and continuum models and short-time results at weak interactions, finding excellent agreement. We apply the method to quantum quenches from a Bose-Einstein condensate in the repulsive Lieb-Liniger model and determine the time evolution of the order parameter for a wide range of interaction strengths. We discuss the emergence of a "sign problem" for more general dynamical correlators and setups.
Computing the non-equilibrium dynamics that follows a quantum quench is difficult, even in exactly solvable models. Results are often predicated on the ability to compute overlaps between the initial state and eigenstates of the Hamiltonian that governs time evolution. Except for a handful of known cases, it is generically not possible to find these overlaps analytically. Here we develop a numerical approach to preferentially generate the states with high overlaps for a quantum quench starting from the ground state or an excited state of an initial Hamiltonian. We use these preferentially generated states, in combination with a "high overlap states truncation scheme" and a modification of the numerical renormalization group, to compute non-equilibrium dynamics following a quench in the Lieb-Liniger model. The method is non-perturbative, works for reasonable numbers of particles, and applies to both continuum and lattice systems. It can also be easily extended to more complicated scenarios, including those with integrability breaking.
Computing the non-equilibrium dynamics that follows a quantum quench is difficult, even in exactly solvable models. Results are often predicated on the ability to compute overlaps between the initial state and eigenstates of the Hamiltonian that governs time evolution. Except for a handful of known cases, it is generically not possible to find these overlaps analytically. Here we develop a numerical approach to preferentially generate the states with high overlaps for a quantum quench starting from the ground state or an excited state of an initial Hamiltonian. We use these preferentially generated states, in combination with a "high overlap states truncation scheme" and a modification of the numerical renormalization group, to compute non-equilibrium dynamics following a quench in the Lieb-Liniger model. The method is non-perturbative, works for reasonable numbers of particles, and applies to both continuum and lattice systems. It can also be easily extended to more complicated scenarios, including those with integrability breaking.
This thesis investigates the dynamics of quantum many-body systems in isolation, in three different setups. We start by considering a paradigmatic quantum chaotic model of magnetism, the Heisenberg antiferromagnet in 2 and 3 spatial dimensions. The focus is on obtaining approximations for the full counting statistics (FCS) of a subsystem order parameter, the staggered magnetization, both in and out of equilibrium (following quantum quenches). We employ mappings of spin variables to bosonic ones, together with self-consistent time-dependent mean-field schemes, to compute the FCS via Gaussian techniques. In particular, we introduce a formula for the FCS of any subsystem observable that is at most quadratic in the bosons. We obtain results both in the presence and absence of long-range magnetic order. We then turn to the first of two ergodicity-breaking scenarios, by considering Hilbert space fragmentation (HSF) in charge- and dipole-conserving quantum chains. We determine the critical charge density at which a "freezing" phase transition from weak to strong fragmentation takes place, for any on-site Hilbert space dimension. To characterize the degree of dynamical connectivity in the system, we introduce a novel framework that enables us to obtain analytic results for the strongly fragmented phase, and numerically explore the weakly fragmented one. We derive some critical exponents, and show that the entanglement entropy of typical eigenstates in the strongly fragmented phase obeys an area law. We also uncover the existence of rare eigenstates whose entropy appears to scale beyond any area law. Finally, we investigate dynamical correlators in the Lieb-Liniger gas, one of the simplest interacting integrable theories solvable by Bethe ansatz. We employ Markov chain Monte Carlo methods to sample matrix elements (form factors) that appear in the Lehmann representation of the finite-temperature single-particle bosonic Green’s function. In the physical regimes we consider, sampling is necessary because a full summation of the relevant form factors is computationally intractable. We benchmark our results against exact solutions available in specific limits, and find them to be very accurate.
We introduce the time-dependent variational Monte Carlo method for continuous-space Bose gases. Our approach is based on the systematic expansion of the many-body wave function in terms of multibody correlations and is essentially exact up to adaptive truncation. The method is benchmarked by comparison to an exact Bethe ansatz or existing numerical results for the integrable Lieb-Liniger model. We first show that the many-body wave function achieves high precision for ground-state properties, including energy and first-order as well as second-order correlation functions. Then, we study the out-of-equilibrium, unitary dynamics induced by a quantum quench in the interaction strength. Our time-dependent variational Monte Carlo results are benchmarked by comparison to exact Bethe ansatz results available for a small number of particles, and are also compared to quench action results available for noninteracting initial states. Moreover, our approach allows us to study large particle numbers and general quench protocols, previously inaccessible beyond the mean-field level. Our results suggest that it is possible to find correlated initial states for which the long-term dynamics of local density fluctuations is close to the predictions of a simple Boltzmann ensemble.
In this thesis we study three examples of interacting many-body systems undergoing a non equilibrium time evolution. Firstly we consider the time evolution in an integrable system: the sine-Gordon field theory in the repulsive regime. We will focus on the one point function of the semi-local vertex operator eiβφ(x)/2 on a specific class of initial states. By analytical means we show that the expectation value considered decays exponentially to zero at late times and we determine the decay time. The method employed is based on a form-factor expansion and uses the "Representative Eigenstate Approach" of Ref. [73] (a.k.a. "Quench Action"). In a second example we study the time evolution in models close to "special" integrable points characterised by hidden symmetries generating infinitely many local conservation laws that do not commute with one another, in addition to the infinite commuting family implied by integrability. We observe that both in the case where the perturbation breaks the integrability and when it breaks only the additional symmetries maintaining integrability, the local observables show a crossover behaviour from an initial to a final quasi stationary plateau. We investigate a weak coupling limit, identify a time window in which the effects of the perturbations become significant and solve the time evolution through a mean-field mapping. As an explicit example we study the XYZ spin-1/2 chain with additional perturbations that break integrability. Finally, we study the effects of integrability breaking perturbations on the non-equilibrium evolution of more general many-particle quantum systems, where the unperturbed integrable model is generic. We focus on a class of spinless fermion models with weak interactions. We employ equation of motion techniques that can be viewed as generalisations of quantum Boltzmann equations. We benchmark our method against time dependent density matrix renormalisation group computations and find it to be very accurate as long as interactions are weak. For small integrability breaking, we observe robust prethermalisation plateaux for local observables on all accessible time scales. Increasing the strength of the integrability breaking term induces a "drift" away from the prethermalisation plateaux towards thermal behaviour. We identify a time scale characterising this crossover.
The time evolution of the entanglement entropy in non-equilibrium quantum systems provides crucial information about the structure of the time-dependent state. For quantum quench protocols, by combining a quasiparticle picture for the entanglement spreading with the exact knowledge of the stationary state provided by Bethe ansatz, it is possible to obtain an exact and analytic description of the evolution of the entanglement entropy. Here we discuss the application of these ideas to several integrable models. First we show that for non-interacting systems, both bosonic and fermionic, the exact time-dependence of the entanglement entropy can be derived by elementary techniques and without solving the dynamics. We then provide exact results for interacting spin chains that are carefully tested against numerical simulations. Finally, we apply this method to integrable one-dimensional Bose gases (Lieb-Liniger model) both in the attractive and repulsive regimes. We highlight a peculiar behaviour of the entanglement entropy due to the absence of a maximum velocity of excitations.