Quench Dynamics in Interacting and Superconducting Nanojunctions

Andrea Donarini, Milena Grifoni

C. Granata, Antonio Vettoliere, Matteo Fretto +2 more

Luca Magazzù, Milena Grifoni

We present a nonperturbative and formally exact approach for the charge transport in interacting nanojunctions based on a real-time path-integral formulation of the reduced system dynamics. For reservoirs of noninteracting fermions, the exact trace over the leads' degrees of freedom results in the time-nonlocal Feynman-Vernon influence functional, a functional of the Grassmann-valued paths of the nanojunction, which induces correlations among the tunneling transitions in and out of the nanojunction. An expansion of the influence functional in terms of the number of tunneling transitions, and integration of the Grassmann variables between the tunneling times, allows us to obtain a still exact generalized master equation for the populations of the reduced density matrix in the occupation-number representation, as well as a formally exact expression for the current. By borrowing the nomenclature of the famous spin-boson model, we parametrize the two-state dynamics of each single-particle fermionic degree of freedom, in the occupation-number representation, in terms of blips and sojourns. We apply our formalism to the exactly solvable resonant level model (RLM) and to the single-impurity Anderson model (SIAM), the latter being a prototype system for studying strong correlations. For both systems, we demonstrate a hierarchical diagrammatic structure. While the hierarchy closes at the second tier for the RLM, this is not the case for the interacting SIAM. Upon inspection of the current kernel, known results from various perturbative and nonperturbative approximation schemes to quantum transport in the SIAM are recovered. Finally, a noncrossing approximation for the hierarchical kernel is developed, which enables us to systematically decrease temperature at each next level of the approximation. Analytical results for a simplified fourth-tier scheme are presented both in equilibrium and nonequilibrium and with an applied magnetic field.

Tomonaga Akiyoshi

Ádám Bácsi, Balázs Dóra

We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of the superconducting order parameter in the Hatsugai-Kohmoto (HK) model. In the absence of superconductivity, its ground state is a non-Fermi liquid, whose properties are controlled by the HK interaction. Our protocol involves quantum quenching the HK interaction but leaving the interaction responsible for superconductivity unchanged. We map out the nonequilibrium dynamical phase diagram of the interacting model which contains three phases where, at long times, the order parameter amplitude vanishes, approaches a constant value, or persistently oscillates. We also investigate the Loschmidt echo in searching for dynamical quantum phase transition and find that its nonanalytic temporal behavior is close but does not match exactly the vanishing of the order parameter. The momentum space entanglement entropy between positive and negative momentum modes, relevant for Cooper pairing, is calculated. Counterintuitively, this momentum space entanglement does not change significantly during the quench dynamics and its value remains reasonably large even for a vanishing superconducting order parameter. Nevertheless, its derivative with respect to the HK interaction signals the dynamical phase transition associated to the late time vanishing of superconductivity.

Cecilia Holmqvist