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Register a new userTopological thermalization via vortex formation in ultra-fast quenches
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We investigate the thermalization of a two-component scalar field across a second-order phase transition under extremely fast quenches. We find that vortices start developing at the final temperature of the quench, i.e., below the critical point. Specifically, we find that vortices emerge once the fluctuating field departures from its symmetric state and evolves towards a metastable and inhomogenous configuration. The density of primordial vortices at the relaxation time is a decreasing function of the final temperature of the quench. Subsequently, vortices and antivortices annihilate at a rate that eventually determines the total thermalization time. This rate decreases if the theory contains a discrete anisotropy, which otherwise leaves the primordial vortex density unaffected. Our results thus establish a link between the topological processes involved in the vortex dynamics and the delay in the thermalization of the system.
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We study the problem of a quantum quench in which the initial state is the ground state of an inhomogeneous hamiltonian, in two different models, conformal field theory and ordinary free field theory, which are known to exhibit thermalisation of finite regions in the homogeneous case. We derive general expressions for the evolution of the energy flow and correlation functions, as well as the entanglement entropy in the conformal case. Comparison of the results of the two approaches in the regime of their common validity shows agreement up to a point further discussed. Unlike the thermal analogue, the evolution in our problem is non-diffusive and can be physically interpreted using an intuitive picture of quasiparticles emitted from the initial time hypersurface and propagating semiclassically.
We study the expectation values of observables and correlation functions at long times after a global quantum quench. Our focus is on metallic (`gapless) fermionic many-body models and small quenches. The system is prepared in an eigenstate of an initial Hamiltonian, and the time evolution is performed with a final Hamiltonian which differs from the initial one in the value of one global parameter. We first derive general relations between time-averaged expectation values of observables as well as correlation functions and those obtained in an eigenstate of the final Hamiltonian. Our results are valid to linear and quadratic order in the quench parameter g and generalize prior insights in several essential ways. This allows us to develop a phenomenology for the thermalization of local quantities up to a given order in g. Our phenomenology is put to a test in several case studies of one-dimensional models representative of four distinct classes of Hamiltonians: quadratic ones, effectively quadratic ones, those characterized by an extensive set of (quasi-) local integrals of motion, and those for which no such set is known (and believed to be nonexistent). We show that for each of these models, all observables and correlation functions thermalize to linear order in g. The more local a given quantity, the longer the linear behavior prevails when increasing g. Typical local correlation functions and observables for which the term O(g) vanishes thermalize even to order g^2. Our results show that lowest order thermalization of local observables is an ubiquitous phenomenon even in models with extensive sets of integrals of motion.
We study the evolution of 3d weakly interacting bosons at finite chemical potential with the stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We fully characterise the vortex network in an out of equilibrium. At high temperature the filament statistics are the ones of fully-packed loop models. The vortex tangle undergoes a geometric percolation transition within the thermodynamically ordered phase. After infinitely fast quenches across the thermodynamic critical point deep into the ordered phase, we identify a first approach towards the critical percolation state, a later coarsening process that does not alter the fractal properties of the long vortex loops, and a final approach to equilibrium. Our results are also relevant to the statistics of linear defects in type II superconductors, magnetic materials and cosmological models.
Free or integrable theories are usually considered to be too constrained to thermalize. For example, the retarded two-point function of a free field, even in a thermal state, does not decay to zero at long times. On the other hand, the magnetic susceptibility of the critical transverse field Ising is known to thermalize, even though that theory can be mapped by a Jordan-Wigner transformation to that of free fermions. We reconcile these two statements by clarifying under which conditions conserved charges can prevent relaxation at the level of linear response and how such obstruction can be overcome. In particular, we give a necessary condition for the decay of retarded Greens functions. We give explicit examples of composite operators in free theories that nevertheless satisfy that condition and therefore do thermalize. We call this phenomenon the Operator Thermalization Hypothesis as a converse to the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis.
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