After a sudden disruption, weakly interacting quantum systems first relax to a prethermalized state that can be described by perturbation theory and a generalized Gibbs ensemble. Using these properties of the prethermalized state we perturbatively de
rive a kinetic equation which becomes a quantum Boltzmann equation in the scaling limit of vanishing interaction. Applying this to interaction quenches in the fermionic Hubbard model we find that the momentum distribution relaxes to the thermal prediction of statistical mechanics. For not too large interaction, this two-stage scenario provides a quantitative understanding of the time evolution leading from the initial pure via a metastable prethermal to the final thermal state.
We derive an exact mapping from the action of nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) to a single-impurity Anderson model (SIAM) with time-dependent parameters, which can be solved numerically by exact diagonalization. The representability
of the nonequilibrium DMFT action by a SIAM is established as a rather general property of nonequilibrium Green functions. We also obtain the nonequilibrium DMFT equations using the cavity method alone. We show how to numerically obtain the SIAM parameters using Cholesky or eigenvector matrix decompositions. As an application, we use a Krylov-based time propagation method to investigate the Hubbard model in which the hopping is switched on, starting from the atomic limit. Possible future developments are discussed.
We analyze the sharpness of crossing (isosbestic) points of a family of curves which are observed in many quantities described by a function f(x,p), where x is a variable (e.g., the frequency) and p a parameter (e.g., the temperature). We show that i
f a narrow crossing region is observed near x* for a range of parameters p, then f(x,p) can be approximated by a perturbative expression in p for a wide range of x. This allows us, e.g., to extract the temperature dependence of several experimentally obtained quantities, such as the Raman response of HgBa2CuO4+delta, photoemission spectra of thin VO2 films, and the reflectivity of CaCu3Ti4O12, all of which exhibit narrow crossing regions near certain frequencies. We also explain the sharpness of isosbestic points in the optical conductivity of the Falicov-Kimball model and the spectral function of the Hubbard model.
We use the analytical solution of the quantum Rabi model to obtain absolutely convergent series expressions of the exact eigenstates and their scalar products with Fock states. This enables us to calculate the numerically exact time evolution of <sig
ma_x(t)> and <sigma_z(t)> for all regimes of the coupling strength, without truncation of the Hilbert space. We find a qualitatively different behavior of both observables which can be related to their representations in the invariant parity subspaces.
The dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) is a widely applicable approximation scheme for the investigation of correlated quantum many-particle systems on a lattice, e.g., electrons in solids and cold atoms in optical lattices. In particular, the combin
ation of the DMFT with conventional methods for the calculation of electronic band structures has led to a powerful numerical approach which allows one to explore the properties of correlated materials. In this introductory article we discuss the foundations of the DMFT, derive the underlying self-consistency equations, and present several applications which have provided important insights into the properties of correlated matter.
We review recent developments in the theory of interacting quantum many-particle systems that are not in equilibrium. We focus mainly on the nonequilibrium generalizations of the flow equation approach and of dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). In th
e nonequilibrium flow equation approach one first diagonalizes the Hamiltonian iteratively, performs the time evolution in this diagonal basis, and then transforms back to the original basis, thereby avoiding a direct perturbation expansion with errors that grow linearly in time. In nonequilibrium DMFT, on the other hand, the Hubbard model can be mapped onto a time-dependent self-consistent single-site problem. We discuss results from the flow equation approach for nonlinear transport in the Kondo model, and further applications of this method to the relaxation behavior in the ferromagnetic Kondo model and the Hubbard model after an interaction quench. For the interaction quench in the Hubbard model, we have also obtained numerical DMFT results using quantum Monte Carlo simulations. In agreement with the flow equation approach they show that for weak coupling the system relaxes to a prethermalized intermediate state instead of rapid thermalization. We discuss the description of nonthermal steady states with generalized Gibbs ensembles.
We review recent results on the properties of materials with correlated electrons obtained within the LDA+DMFT approach, a combination of a conventional band structure approach based on the local density approximation (LDA) and the dynamical mean-fie
ld theory (DMFT). The application to four outstanding problems in this field is discussed: (i) we compute the full valence band structure of the charge-transfer insulator NiO by explicitly including the p-d hybridization, (ii) we explain the origin for the simultaneously occuring metal-insulator transition and collapse of the magnetic moment in MnO and Fe2O3, (iii) we describe a novel GGA+DMFT scheme in terms of plane-wave pseudopotentials which allows us to compute the orbital order and cooperative Jahn-Teller distortion in KCuF3 and LaMnO3, and (iv) we provide a general explanation for the appearance of kinks in the effective dispersion of correlated electrons in systems with a pronounced three-peak spectral function without having to resort to the coupling of electrons to bosonic excitations. These results provide a considerable progress in the fully microscopic investigations of correlated electron materials.
