A variety of recent studies have shed light on the far from equilibrium behavior of quantum systems. Research suggests that this away from equilibrium approach may lead to the realization of unfamiliar dynamical quantum states. For instance, we see ballistic transport at finite temperature, an absence of thermalization, and development of long-range entanglement from initially uncorrelated states. It has been shown that in some cases a time-evolving quantum state is equivalent to the ground state of an "emergent" Hamiltonian where the time enters as a param- eter. This mapping gives us insight into the nature of correlations between particles. For high temperatures, we expect no long-range correlations to develop. However, the emergent model demonstrates that the time-evolved state can be realized as a low energy eigenstate, which naturally possesses long-range correlations. Here, we study the dynamical behavior of both noninteracting and interacting particles in a one-dimensional lattice under various conditions. As the system un- dergoes time evolution, we look at the distribution of particles as well as correlations between particles in the system. We then compare the actual time-evolving state of the system to the ground state of the emergent Hamiltonian to study how long this description is valid. We generally expect that the description is valid in a given region as long as the boundary effects do not propagate into the region. We first verify and reproduce results in the literature (see Vidmar et al. [1]). We proceed to study the effect of interaction strength in a particular interacting model that shows both ballistic and diffusive transport. We then apply this formalism to calculate infinite temperature dynamics of a noninteracting system. Interestingly, this system also develops long-range correlations over time in spite of starting out from an infinite temperature state.
A variety of recent studies have shed light on the far from equilibrium behavior of quantum systems. Research suggests that this away from equilibrium approach may lead to the realization of unfamiliar dynamical quantum states. For instance, we see ballistic transport at finite temperature, an absence of thermalization, and development of long-range entanglement from initially uncorrelated states. It has been shown that in some cases a time-evolving quantum state is equivalent to the ground state of an "emergent" Hamiltonian where the time enters as a param- eter. This mapping gives us insight into the nature of correlations between particles. For high temperatures, we expect no long-range correlations to develop. However, the emergent model demonstrates that the time-evolved state can be realized as a low energy eigenstate, which naturally possesses long-range correlations. Here, we study the dynamical behavior of both noninteracting and interacting particles in a one-dimensional lattice under various conditions. As the system un- dergoes time evolution, we look at the distribution of particles as well as correlations between particles in the system. We then compare the actual time-evolving state of the system to the ground state of the emergent Hamiltonian to study how long this description is valid. We generally expect that the description is valid in a given region as long as the boundary effects do not propagate into the region. We first verify and reproduce results in the literature (see Vidmar et al. [1]). We proceed to study the effect of interaction strength in a particular interacting model that shows both ballistic and diffusive transport. We then apply this formalism to calculate infinite temperature dynamics of a noninteracting system. Interestingly, this system also develops long-range correlations over time in spite of starting out from an infinite temperature state.
In the study of quantum transport, much has been known about dynamics near thermal equilibrium. However, quantum transport far away from equilibrium is much less well understood---the linear response approximation does not hold for physics far out of equilibrium in general. In this work, motivated by recent cold atom experiments on probing quantum many-body dynamics of a one-dimensional XXZ spin chain, where a transition from ballistic to diffusive dynamics has been established by increasing the interaction strengths, we study the strong interaction limit of the one-dimensional spinless fermion model, which is dual to the XXZ spin chain. We develop a highly efficient computation algorithm for simulating the nonequilibrium dynamics of this system exactly, and examine the nonequilibrium dynamics starting from a density modulation quantum state. We find ballistic transport in this strongly correlated setting and show that a plane-wave description emerges at long-time evolution. We also observe a sharp distinction between transport velocities in short and long times as induced by interaction effects and provide a quantitative interpretation for the long-time transport velocity. We expect our results to shed light on the understanding of the dynamics of the XXZ spin chain in the strong interaction regime.
Recent experimental advances on ultracold atomic gases and trapped ions have made it possible to simulate exactly solvable quantum systems of interacting particles. In particular, the feasibility of making rapid changes, so-called quantum quenches, to such set-ups has allowed experimentalists to probe non-equilibrium phenomena in closed interacting quantum systems. This, in turn, has spurred a considerable theoretical interest in quantum many-body systems out of equilibrium. In this thesis, we study non-equilibrium properties of quantum many-body systems in the framework of exactly solvable quantum field theory in one spatial dimension. Specific systems include interacting fermions described by the Luttinger model and effective descriptions of spin chains using conformal field theory (CFT). Special emphasis is placed on heat and charge transport, studied from the point of view of quench dynamics, and, in particular, the effects of breaking conformal symmetries on transport properties. Examples include the Luttinger model with non-local interactions, breaking Lorentz and scale invariance, and inhomogeneous CFT, which generalizes standard CFT in that the usual propagation velocity v is replaced by a function v(x) that depends smoothly on the position x, breaking translation invariance. The quench dynamics studied here is for quantum quenches between, in general, different smooth inhomogeneous systems. An example of this is the so-called smooth-profile protocol, in which the initial state is defined by, e.g., smooth inhomogeneous profiles of inverse temperature and chemical potential, and the time evolution is governed by a homogeneous Hamiltonian. Using this protocol, we compute exact analytical results for the full time evolution of the systems mentioned above. In particular, we derive finite-time results that are universal in the sense that the same relations between the non-equilibrium dynamics and the initial profiles hold for any unitary CFT. These results also make clear that heat and charge transport in standard CFT are purely ballistic. Finally, we propose and study an inhomogeneous CFT model with v(x) given by a random function. We argue that this model naturally emerges as an effective description of one-dimensional quantum many-body systems with certain static random impurities. Using tools from wave propagation in random media, we show that such impurities lead to normal and anomalous diffusive contributions to heat transport on top of the ballistic one known from standard CFT.
The study of the interplay between interaction-induced correlations and nonequilibrium initial conditions in many-body systems has recently attracted a lot of attention. New experimental techniques provide high control over many-body systems and systematic access to their nonequilibrium regime. In many systems the nonequilibrium properties of a Fermi liquid can be relevant. A first approach to their understanding is the main content of this thesis. At the beginning, nonequilibrium phenomena, Landau's theory of a Fermi liquid, the Hubbard model, time evolution in quantum mechanics, related experiments, and the flow equation method are reviewed. The key observation of this thesis, namely a characteristic mismatch of expectation values in equilibrium and nonequilibrium, is first illustrated for the squeezed oscillator. For this one-particle model Hamiltonian the perturbative approach can be compared with the exact solution and it is shown that the mismatch holds even beyond perturbation theory. Afterwards these observations are generalized to a larger class of one-particle models. Then the nonequilibrium behavior of a Fermi liquid is examined by analyzing the Fermi liquid phase of the Hubbard model in more than one dimension. After a sudden switch-on of a weak two-particle interaction to the noninteracting Fermi gas the relaxation of the many-body system is observed. For this purpose, the flow equation transformation is implemented for the Hubbard Hamiltonian. Then the discussion of the momentum distribution function and of the kinetic energy displays a three-step relaxation behavior of the Fermi liquid from the initial perturbation until thermalization is reached. Firstly, the sudden switch inserts excitation energy into the system which drives the following dynamics. Then a rapid initial build-up of correlations is caused by initial dephasing and leads to the establishment of a quasiparticle picture. By that the system enters into a quasi-stationary state which can be long-lasting for weak interaction. This state shows prethermalization of the kinetic energy which already has relaxed to its final values. However, the momentum distribution still resembles a zero temperature Fermi liquid. Its later relaxation on a second time scale is caused by a residual two-particle interaction which allows for scattering processes and can be described by a quantum Boltzmann equation. The physical origin of this delayed relaxation can be traced back to an interplay of translational invariance of the Hubbard model and the Pauli principle for fermions; together they restrict the phase space for scattering events. Comparing with similar work I conjecture on the generic nature of the findings made for the quenched Fermi liquid in other many-body systems. Finally I point out to the potential relevance of the delayed relaxation for the observation of further nonequilibrium phenomena, for instance in BCS systems. In order to extend the study of sudden switching to arbitrary switching processes the calculation is repeated using the Keldysh perturbation theory. First evaluations for a linear increase of the interaction strength are given. Extensions of this work are suggested and may motivate further research.
In the last years the impressive progress on the experimental side led to a variety of new experiments allowing to address systems out of equilibrium.In this way the behavior of such systems far from equilibrium is no longer a purely theoretical issue but indeed observable.New experimental techniques, like particles trapped in optical lattices, render a realization of quantum systems with nearly arbitrary system parameters possible and provide a possibility to study their time evolution.Systems out of equilibrium are characterized by the fact, that these systems are in highly excited states giving rise to totally new fascinating properties.In the present thesis one-and two-dimensional fermionic Hubbard models out of equilibrium are discussed.The system is taken out of equilibrium by a so-called interaction quench.At the beginning the system is prepared in the groundstate of the non-interacting Hamiltonian.At a time t the interaction between the fermions is suddenly turned on so that the time evolution is governed by the whole, interacting Hamiltonian.Hence the system is prepared in the groundstate of one Hamiltonian but evolves according to a di_erent Hamiltonian.Consequently the system ends up in a highly excited state.To describe such a system a method based on an expansion of the Heisenberg equations of motion to highest order possible is developed in this thesis.This method provides an exact description of the time evolution on short and intermediate time scales after the quench.As the method reveal exact results and does not rely on any perturbative assumption, a study of arbitrarily large interaction strengths is possible.Besides, the method is one of the few methods capable of two-dimensional systems.In the following the method used in this thesis is explained and advantages and disadvantages of the approach are thematized.For this purpose the results of the developed iterated equation of motion approach are compared to results obtained in calculation up to second order in the interaction.Then the dynamics of the onedimensional model is discussed with a focus on the relation of the results derived by the iterated equations of motion approach to results obtained by bosonization theory, the behavior for strong interactions and the dynamical transition from the weak to the strong quench regime.Furthermore, the Hubbard model is studied on a two-dimensional square lattice.This model is fundamentally di_erent from the one-dimensional model: In contrast to the one-dimensional model the two-dimensional model is not integrable allowing a true relaxation of the system.For this system a calculation up to second order in the interaction is performed and compared to the results of the iterated equation of motion approach.Besides, the time evolution of the momentum distribution and the influence of doping on the dynamics is studied.Moreover, a first estimate for relaxation times is provided without relying on the assumption of a mixed state.
A central goal in the study of modern condensed matter physics is the characterization of the dynamical properties of quantum systems. Many decades of effort towards this goal, studying a diverse range of (near-equilibrium) quantum matter, from Fermi liquids, to quantum two-level systems, to interacting spin models, and more, has revealed a remarkable pervasiveness of the simple dynamical description of these complex systems in terms of quasi-particles that carry spin, charge, and heat, and that are generally able to equilibrate systems. \n\nThis thesis is an examination of some exceptions to this rule. Specifically, we study a number of instances of quantum matter where equilibration phenomena happens at rather long time scales, or does not occur at all. Particular emphasis is laid on the role of dimensionality, disorder, and dissipation in engendering such novel dynamical behavior.\n\nFirst, we consider non-equilibrium dynamics in one-dimensional quasi-condensates. Low dimensionality inhibits scattering in these systems, and low-energy excitations are long-lived phase fluctuations that exhibit an enriched conformal symmetry. Utilizing this symmetry, we generalize sudden quenches typically used to study non-equilibrium dynamics to quenches along general relativistic and conformal trajectories. Gases never truly equilibrate after such a quench; instead, they evolve into a `prethermal' state with thermal-looking correlations and a chiral asymmetry. \n\nWe then study the problem of the dynamical transition driven by disorder, from an ergodic to a non-ergodic phase, in one-dimensional quantum spin chains. In particular, in XXZ chains with on-site disorder, we find a unique intermediate phase straddling the boundary of the dynamical phase transition, wherein rare-region effects lead to long-time tails in equilibration and vanishing DC conduction before the onset of non-ergodicity. We propose generalizations of such `Griffiths' behavior to arbitrary dimensions. We also study the dynamics of random-bond Heisenberg chains by developing a strong-disorder renormalization group protocol for these systems. We discuss how magnetic noise from such disordered systems contains signatures of their anomalous dynamical properties. \n\nNext, we re-examine the phenomenological theory of two-level systems in amorphous materials in the light of new experimental evidence that these states have large electric/magnetic dipole moments. We propose and justify an interpretation of the model as one of tunneling electrons slowed down by a large phonon drag and discuss the dynamical consequences of such polaronic effects. \n\nFinally, we discuss how magnetic noise measurements can be used to non-invasively access the anomalous properties of systems such as those discussed above. In particular, we examine how scattering properties of isolated magnetic impurities and non-local transport in a variety of two-dimensional materials can be probed experimentally using NV centers as noise magnetometers.
The primary goals of this dissertaion are to describe and elucidate a new formalism to study the out of equilibrium dynamics of integrable models, and to apply this formalism to some specific problems. In particular, I describe the “quench dynamics” of a gas of interacting bosons in one dimension, and provide details of some preliminary work on the isotropic Heisenberg chain. The formalism, based on earlier work by Yudson, provides a way of getting around some of the difficulties involved in calculating the time evolution of arbitrary initial states evolved with integrable Hamiltonians. In addition to this, I aim to discuss some of the general aspects of quench dynamics in quantum systems. The description of the nonequilibrium dynamics of a given system depends significantly on initial states, and the time scales at which the system is probed compared with the various inherent time scales in the system. I present the experimental context and motivation for these studies, and survey the existing techniques and efforts at understanding the relaxation of systems that are far from their equilibrium states or ground states.