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Physical Review X

Nonequilibrium Dynamics of Long-Range Interacting Fermions

Timo Zwettler, Giulia Del Pace, Filip Marijanović, S. Chattopadhyay, Th. Bühler, Catalin-Mihai Halati, Luka Skolc, Luisa Tolle, Victor Helson, Gaia Bolognini, A. Fabre, Shun Uchino, Thierry Giamarchi, Eugene Demler, Jean-Philippe Brantut

Published Jun 10, 2025• 8 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A fundamental problem of out-of-equilibrium physics is the speed at which the order parameter grows upon crossing a phase transition. Here, we investigate the ordering dynamics in a Fermi gas undergoing a density-wave phase transition induced by quenching infinite-range, cavity-mediated interactions. We observe, in real time, the exponential rise of the order parameter and track its growth over several orders of magnitude. Remarkably, the growth rate can exceed the Fermi energy by an order of magnitude, consistent with predictions from a linearized instability analysis. This case contrasts with the ordering process driven by short-range interactions. We then generalize our results to linear interaction ramps, where deviations from the adiabatic behavior are captured by a simple dynamical ansatz. Our study offers a paradigmatic example of the interplay between strong short- and long-range interactions in quantum nonequilibrium dynamics.

DOI
10.1103/physrevx.15.021089

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A fundamental problem of out-of-equilibrium physics is the speed at which the order parameter grows upon crossing a phase transition. Here, we investigate the ordering dynamics in a Fermi gas undergoing a density-wave phase transition induced by quenching infinite-range, cavity-mediated interactions. We observe, in real time, the exponential rise of the order parameter and track its growth over several orders of magnitude. Remarkably, the growth rate can exceed the Fermi energy by an order of magnitude, consistent with predictions from a linearized instability analysis. This case contrasts with the ordering process driven by short-range interactions. We then generalize our results to linear interaction ramps, where deviations from the adiabatic behavior are captured by a simple dynamical ansatz. Our study offers a paradigmatic example of the interplay between strong short- and long-range interactions in quantum nonequilibrium dynamics.
A fundamental problem of out-of-equilibrium physics is the speed at which the order parameter grows upon crossing a phase transition. Here, we investigate the dynamics of ordering in a Fermi gas undergoing a density-wave phase transition induced by quenching of long-range, cavity-mediated interactions. We observe in real-time the exponential rise of the order parameter and track its growth over several orders of magnitude. Remarkably, the growth rate is insensitive to the contact interaction strength from the ideal gas up to the unitary limit and can exceed the Fermi energy by an order of magnitude, in quantitative agreement with a linearized instability analysis. We then generalize our results to linear interaction ramps, where deviations from the adiabatic behaviour are captured by a simple dynamical ansatz. Our study offers a paradigmatic example of the interplay between non-locality and non-equilibrium dynamics, where universal scaling behaviour emerges despite strong interactions at the microscopic level.
Recent quench experiments on ultra cold fermions in optical cavities provide a clean platform for studying how long-range interactions between fermions structure their dynamics. Motivated by these experiments, we provide a theoretical analysis of the dynamical instabilities that lead to the formation of superradiance as the hybrid system is driven across the self-organization transition. We compute the rate at which order forms and quantify the fluctuations of the pre-quench state which seed the instability. Our results quantitatively match existing experiments on free fermions and make predictions for quench experiments involving near unitary fermi gases coupled to an optical cavity. Our work suggests that the non-local nature of the photon-mediated interactions between fermions generates ordering dynamics that are qualitatively different than those observed in short-range interacting systems.
The coupling of ultracold quantum gases to an optical cavity provides an ideal system for studying the novel long-range interacting nonequilibrium dynamics. Here we report an experimental observation of the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of a degenerate Fermi gas in the cavity after quenching the pump strength over a superradiant quantum phase transition. The relaxation dynamics exhibits impressively different stages of a delay, violent relaxation, long-lifetime prethermalization, and slowly final thermalization due to the photon-mediated long-range interaction with dissipation. Importantly, we reveal that the lifetime of the system stayed on the prethermalization exhibits the superlinear scaling of the atom number. Furthermore, we show that the backaction of the superradiant cavity field on the gas causes the exchange of atoms between the normal and superradiant state in the early evolution and then induces the prethermalization. This work opens an avenue to explore complex nonequilibrium dynamics of the dissipatively long-range interacting Fermi gases.
In this Thesis we discussed several issues related to the dynamics of isolated quantum many-body systems. The brief overview of Chapter 1 highlighted a series of open fundamental theoretical questions which are crucial for the investigation of nonequilibrium phenomena. Among them, we mainly focused on the emergence of thermal behaviors and on the characterization of dynamical phase transitions and of the associated universal dynamics. To this end, we analyzed some paradigmatic models, such as the Fermi-Hubbard model, the quantum Ising chain, and the O(N) model. -Chapter 2: Absence of thermalization in a Fermi liquid. In this Chapter we report two results that question the common expectation of thermalization in a Landau-Fermi liquid after an interaction quench. We first consider the perturbative expansion in the interaction strength of the long-wavelength structure factor S(q) and show that it does not satisfy the hypothesis that steady-state averages correspond to thermal ones. In particular, S(q) has an analytical component ∼ const. + O(q^2) for q → 0, compatible with thermalization, but it retains also a nonanalytic term ∼ |q| characteristic of a Fermi liquid at zero-temperature. In real space, this nonanalyticity turns in a power-law decay of the density-density correlations, in contrast with the exponential decay associated to thermalization. We next analyze the low-density case, where one can obtain results valid at any order in interaction but at leading in the density, and find that in the steady state the momentum distribution jump at the Fermi surface is strictly finite, though smaller than at equilibrium. -Chapter 3: Nonadiabatic stationary behavior in a driven Ising chain. In this Chapter we discuss the emergence of a nonadiabatic behavior in the dynamics of the order parameter in a low-dimensional system subject to a linear ramp of one of its parameters within a gapped phase, which should be the most favorable situation for an adiabatic evolution. We study in details the dynamics of the spontaneous magnetization m_x(t) in a quantum Ising chain after a linear variation in time of the transverse field within the ordered phase. In particular, focusing on the value of the order parameter at the end of the ramp m_x(τ), we show that the smaller the switching rate of the transverse field is the closer m_x(τ) gets to its ground state value. Nonetheless, this apparently small correction to adiabaticity eventually leads to the disruption of the order exponentially fast in the subsequent time evolution, no matter how slowly the ramp is performed. -Chapter 4: Aging and coarsening in isolated quantum systems after a quench. This Chapter analyzes the nonequilibrium dynamics of an isolated quantum system after a sudden quench to the dynamical critical point, where the emergence of scaling and universal exponents is expected, due to the absence of time and length scales. We explore these features for a bosonic interacting scalar field theory with O(N) symmetry in the large-N limit, where the model is exactly solvable and the exponents and scaling forms of the relevant two-time correlation functions can be analytically calculated. Moreover, we provide evidence of the emergence of a dynamical scaling behavior also for quenches below the dynamical critical point, associated with coarsening. We find that the latter case is characterized by the same scaling functions as those describing the critical case, yet with different exponents. -Chapter 5: Dynamical transitions and statistics of excitations. In this Chapter we study the dynamics of the O(N) model (introduced in the previous Chapter) resulting from a different protocol: a linear ramp of one of its parameters. We find that the presence of a dynamical phase transition, as well as its critical properties, are robust against the change of the protocol. We show that a characterization based on the critical dimensions and exponents would suggest that the dynamical phase transition is analogous to the equilibrium thermal one. However, its nonequilibrium nature becomes evident analyzing the statistics of excitations produced in the ramp process. In particular, the critical properties are encoded in the fluctuations in the number of excitations, which display qualitatively different behaviors depending on the ramp being performed above, at, or below the dynamical critical point. These behaviors bear no dependence on the duration of the protocol.
The coupling of cold atoms to the radiation field within a high-finesse optical resonator, an optical cavity, induces long-range interactions which can compete with an underlying optical lattice. The interplay between short- and long-range interactions gives rise to new phases of matter including supersolidity (SS) and density waves (DW), and interesting quantum dynamics. Here it is shown that for hard-core bosons in one dimension the ground state phase diagram and the quantum relaxation after sudden quenches can be calculated exactly in the thermodynamic limit. Remanent DW order is observed for quenches from a DW ground state into the superfluid (SF) phase below a dynamical transition line. After sufficiently strong SF to DW quenches beyond a static metastability line DW order emerges on top of remanent SF order, giving rise to a dynamically generated SS state. Our method to handle infinite- and short-range interactions in the infinite system size limit opens a way to solve exactly other Hamiltonians with infinite- and short-range interactions as well.
Recent quench experiments on ultracold atoms in optical cavities provide a clean platform for studying how long-range interactions in atomic media structure their nonequilibrium dynamics. Motivated by these experiments, we provide a theoretical analysis of the quench instabilities that lead to the formation of superradiance as the hybrid system is driven across the self-organization transition. Working with both ultracold bosonic and fermionic gases, we compute the rate at which order forms and quantify the fluctuations of the prequench state that seed the instability. Our results quantitatively match existing experiments on free fermions and make predictions for quench experiments involving interacting Bose and Fermi gases. Our Letter suggests that the nonlocal nature of the photon-mediated interactions generates ordering dynamics that are qualitatively different than those observed in short-range interacting systems.