We summarize the concept of excited-state quantum phase transitions with an emphasis to the distinction of quantum phases that exist on both sides of the transition. Our considerations are illustrated in an extended Dicke model.
We study dynamical phase transitions (DPTs) in quantum many-body systems with infinite-range interaction, and present a theory connecting the two kinds of known DPTs (sometimes referred to as DPTs-I and DPTs-II) with the concept of excited-state quantum phase transition (ESQPT), traditionally found in collective models. We show that DPTs-I appear as a manifestation of symmetry restoration after a quench from the broken-symmetry phase, the limits between these two phases being demarcated precisely by an ESQPT. We describe the order parameters of DPTs-I with a generalization of the standard microcanonical ensemble incorporating the information of two additional conserved charges identifying the corresponding phase. We also show that DPTs-I are linked to a mechanism of information erasure brought about by the ESQPT, and quantify this information loss with the statistical ensemble that we propose. Finally, we show analytically the main mechanism for DPTs-II is forbidden in these systems for quenches leading a broken-symmetry initial state to the same broken-symmetry phase, on one side of the ESQPT, and we provide a formulation of DPTs-II depending on the side of the ESQPT where the quench ends. We analyze the connections between various indicators of DPTs-II. Our results are numerically illustrated in the infinite-range transverse-field Ising model and are applicable to a large class of collective quantum systems satisfying a set of conditions.
In the thesis we investigate and classify critical phenomena in the extended Dicke model (EDM) which describes the interaction between two-level atoms and a single-mode bosonic field (schematic model for cavity quantum electrodynamics). The model belongs to the class of so-called finite models, which keep the number of degrees of freedom f constant independently on the size of the system N . The important property of these systems is that the thermodynamic limit N → ∞ coincides with the classical limit ħ → 0. This allows us to study various quantum critical phenomena, in particular the ground-state quantum phase transitions (QPTs) and the excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs), by means of semiclassical methods. Using the semiclassical approach we identify and classify the QPTs and ESQPTs in various settings of the EDM and make a link to thermal phase transitions. We study the entanglement properties of both the ground state and the excited states as a function of the atom-field interaction strength. In the integrable version of the EDM we make a link between the ESQPT and monodromy, and discuss its effect on classical dynamics. The fate of monodromy under a non-integrable perturbation is observed. The dynamical consequences of the ESQPTs are examined using quantum quenches. The influence of the...