Condensed-Matter Physics & Materials Science Seminar

"Thermalization and light cones in a model with weak integrability breaking"

Presented by Stefan Groha, University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Tuesday, March 28, 2017, 11:00 am — Bldg. 734, ISB Conference Room 201 (upstairs)

We employ equation of motion techniques to study the non-equilibrium dynamics in a lattice model of weakly interacting spinless fermions. Our model provides a simple setting for analyzing the effects of weak integrability breaking perturbations on the time evolution after a quantum quench. We establish the accuracy of the method by comparing results at short and intermediate times to time-dependent density matrix renormalization group computations. For sufficiently weak integrability-breaking interactions we always observe prethermalization plateaux, where local observables relax to non-thermal values at intermediate time scales. At later times a crossover towards thermal behaviour sets in. We determine the associated time scale, which depends on the initial state, the band structure of the non-interacting theory, and the strength of the integrability breaking perturbation. Our method allows us to analyze in some detail the spreading of correlations and in particular the structure of the associated light cones in our model. We find that the interior and exterior of the light cone are separated by an intermediate region, the temporal width of which appears to scale with a universal power-law t 1/3.

Hosted by: Neil Robinson

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