Universal rephasing dynamics after a quantum quench via sudden coupling of two initially independent condensates

Postquantum Quench Growth of Renyi Entropies in Low-Dimensional Continuum Bosonic Systems

The growth of Renyi entropies after the injection of energy into a correlated system provides a window upon the dynamics of its entanglement properties. We develop here a simulation scheme by which this growth can be determined in Luttinger liquids systems with arbitrary interactions, even those introducing gaps into the liquid. We apply this scheme to an experimentally relevant quench in the sine-Gordon field theory. While for short times we provide analytic expressions for the growth of the second and third Renyi entropy, to access longer times, we combine our scheme with truncated spectrum methods.

Multifaceted phase ordering kinetics of an antiferromagnetic spin-1 condensate

We study phase domain coarsening in the long time limit after a quench of magnetic field in a quasi one-dimensional spin-1 antiferromagnetic condensate. We observe that the growth of correlation length obeys scaling laws predicted by the two different models of phase ordering kinetics, namely the binary mixture and vector field. We derive regimes of clear realization for both of them. We demonstrate appearance of atypical scaling laws, which emerge in intermediate regions.

Universal Prethermal Dynamics in Gross-Neveu-Yukawa Criticality

We study the prethermal dynamics of the Gross-Neveu-Yukawa quantum field theory, suddenly quenched in the vicinity of a critical point. We find that the universal prethermal dynamics is controlled by two fixed points depending on the size of the quench. Besides the usual equilibrium chiral Ising fixed point for a shallow quench, a dynamical chiral Ising fixed point is identified for a deep quench. Intriguingly, the latter is a nonthermal fixed point without any equilibrium counterpart due to the participation of gapless fermionic fields. We also find that in the scaling regime controlled by the equilibrium fixed point, the initial slip exponent is rendered negative if there are enough flavors of fermions, thus providing a unique signature of fermionic prethermal dynamics. We then explore the temporal crossover between the universal scaling regimes governed by the two universality classes. Possible experimental realizations are also discussed.

Relaxation to a Phase-Locked Equilibrium State in a One-Dimensional Bosonic Josephson Junction

We present an experimental study on the nonequilibrium tunnel dynamics of two coupled one-dimensional Bose-Einstein quasicondensates deep in the Josephson regime. Josephson oscillations are initiated by splitting a single one-dimensional condensate and imprinting a relative phase between the superfluids. Regardless of the initial state and experimental parameters, the dynamics of the relative phase and atom number imbalance shows a relaxation to a phase-locked steady state. The latter is characterized by a high phase coherence and reduced fluctuations with respect to the initial state. We propose an empirical model based on the analogy with the anharmonic oscillator to describe the effect of various experimental parameters. A microscopic theory compatible with our observations is still missing.

Universal equilibrium scaling functions at short times after a quench

By analyzing spin-spin correlation functions at relatively short distances, we show that equilibrium near-critical properties can be extracted at short times after quenches into the vicinity of a quantum critical point. The time scales after which equilibrium properties can be extracted are sufficiently short so that the proposed scheme should be viable for quantum simulators of spin models based on ultracold atoms or trapped ions. Our results, analytic as well as numeric, are for one-dimensional spin models, either integrable or nonintegrable, but we expect our conclusions to be valid in higher dimensions as well.

Observation of Scaling in the Dynamics of a Strongly Quenched Quantum Gas

We report on the experimental observation of scaling in the time evolution following a sudden quench into the vicinity of a quantum critical point. The experimental system, a two-component Bose gas with coherent exchange between the constituents, allows for the necessary high level of control of parameters as well as the access to time-resolved spatial correlation functions. The theoretical analysis reveals that when quenching the system close to the critical point, the energy introduced by the quench leads to a short-time evolution exhibiting crossover reminiscent of the finite-temperature critical properties in the system's universality class. Observing the time evolution after a quench represents a paradigm shift in accessing and probing experimentally universal properties close to a quantum critical point and allows in a new way benchmarking of quantum many-body theory with experiments.

Chiral prethermalization in supersonically split condensates

We study the dynamics of phase relaxation between a pair of one-dimensional condensates created by a supersonic unzipping of a single condensate. We use the Lorentz invariance of the low energy sector of such systems to show that dephasing results in an unusual prethermal state, in which right- and left-moving excitations have different, Doppler-shifted temperatures. The chirality of these modes can be probed experimentally by measuring the interference fringe contrasts with the release point of the split condensates moving at another supersonic velocity. Further, an accelerated motion of the release point can be used to observe a spacelike analog of the Unruh effect. A concrete experimental realization of the quantum zipper for a BEC of trapped atoms on an atom chip is outlined.

Universal time fluctuations in near-critical out-of-equilibrium quantum dynamics

Out-of-equilibrium quantum systems display complex temporal patterns. Such time fluctuations are generically exponentially small in the system volume and therefore can be safely ignored in most of the cases. However, if one consider small quench experiments, time fluctuations can be greatly enhanced. We show that time fluctuations may become stronger than other forms of equilibrium quantum fluctuations if the quench is performed close to a critical point. For sufficiently relevant operators the full distribution function of dynamically evolving observable expectation values becomes a universal function uniquely characterized by the critical exponents and the boundary conditions. At regular points of the phase diagram and for nonsufficiently relevant operators the distribution becomes Gaussian. Our predictions are confirmed by an explicit calculation on the quantum Ising model.

Microscopic theory of non-adiabatic response in real and imaginary time

We present a general approach to describe slowly driven quantum systems both in real and imaginary time. We highlight many similarities, qualitative and quantitative, between real and imaginary time evolution. We discuss how the metric tensor and the Berry curvature can be extracted from both real and imaginary time simulations as a response of physical observables. For quenches ending at or near the quantum critical point, we show the utility of the scaling theory for detecting the location of the quantum critical point by comparing sweeps at different velocities. We briefly discuss the universal relaxation to equilibrium of systems after a quench. We finally review recent developments of quantum Monte Carlo methods for studying imaginary time evolution. We illustrate our findings with explicit calculations using the transverse-field Ising model in one dimension.