Dynamics of a quantum phase transition and relaxation to a steady state |
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Authors: | Jacek Dziarmaga |
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Institution: | 1. Instytut Fizyki im. Mariana Smoluchowskiego and Mark Kac Complex Systems Research Centre, Uniwersytet Jagielloński , ul. Reymonta 4, PL-30-059 Kraków , Poland dziarmaga@th.if.uj.edu.pl |
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Abstract: | We review recent theoretical work on two closely related issues: excitation of an isolated quantum condensed matter system driven adiabatically across a continuous quantum phase transition or a gapless phase, and apparent relaxation of an excited system after a sudden quench of a parameter in its Hamiltonian. Accordingly, the review is divided into two parts. The first part revolves around a quantum version of the Kibble–Zurek mechanism including also phenomena that go beyond this simple paradigm. What they have in common is that excitation of a gapless many-body system scales with a power of the driving rate. The second part attempts a systematic presentation of recent results and conjectures on apparent relaxation of a pure state of an isolated quantum many-body system after its excitation by a sudden quench. This research is motivated in part by recent experimental developments in the physics of ultracold atoms with potential applications in the adiabatic quantum state preparation and quantum computation. |
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Keywords: | quantum phase transition thermalisation Landau–Zener model adiabatic theorem |
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