A simple and very flexible variational approach to the out-of-equilibrium quantum dynamics in strongly correlated electron systems is introduced through a time-dependent Gutzwiller wavefunction. As an application, we study the simple case of a sudden change of the interaction in the fermionic Hubbard model and find at the mean field level an extremely rich behaviour. In particular, a dynamical transition between small and large quantum quench regimes is found to occur at half-filling, in accordance with the analysis of Eckstein {\sl et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 103}, 056403 (2009), obtained by dynamical mean field theory, that turns into a crossover at any finite doping.
Quenching a quantum system involves three basic ingredients: the initial phase, the post-quench target phase, and the non-equilibrium dynamics which carries the information of the former two. Here we propose a dynamical theory to characterize both the topology and symmetry-breaking order in correlated quantum system, through quenching the Haldane-Hubbard model from an initial magnetic phase to topologically nontrivial regime. The equation of motion for the complex pseudospin dynamics is obtained with the flow equation method, with the pseudospin evolution shown to obey a microscopic Landau-Lif…
We present a Gutzwiller von Neumann dynamics (GvND) method for simulating equilibrium and nonequilibrium phenomena in strongly correlated electron systems. Our approach is a real-space formulation of the time-dependent Gutzwiller approximation method. Applying the GvND method to simulate interaction quenches in the Peierls-Hubbard model, we demonstrate the amplification of initial inhomogeneities, which in turn results in the collapse of quench-induced synchronized oscillation. Moreover, we find a dynamical phase transition separating two quasi-stationary regimes with rather distinct spatial d…
Using the adaptive time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group method, we study the time evolution of strongly correlated spinless fermions on a one-dimensional lattice after a sudden change of the interaction strength. For certain parameter values, two different initial states (e.g., metallic and insulating), lead to observables which become indistinguishable after relaxation. We find that the resulting quasi-stationary state is non-thermal. This result holds for both integrable and non-integrable variants of the system.
We study variable-rate linear quenches in the anisotropic Heisenberg (XXZ) chain, starting at the XX point. This is equivalent to switching on a nearest neighbour interaction for hard-core bosons or an interaction quench for free fermions. The physical observables we investigate are: the energy pumped into the system during the quench, the spin-flip correlation function, and the bipartite fluctuations of the z component of the spin in a box. We find excellent agreement between exact numerics (infinite system time-evolving block decimation, iTEBD) and analytical results from bosonization, as a …
Forcing systems though fast non-equilibrium phase transitions offers the opportunity to study new states of quantum matter that self-assemble in their wake. Here we study the quantum interference effects of correlated electrons confined in monolayer quantum nanostructures, created by femtosecond laser-induced quench through a first-order polytype structural transition in a layered transition-metal dichalcogenide material. Scanning tunnelling microscopy of the electrons confined within equilateral triangles, whose dimensions are a few crystal unit cells on the side, reveals that the trajectorie…
We study the relaxation dynamics of a quantum dot with local Coulomb correlations coupled to two noninteracting leads which are held in grandcanonical equilibrium. Only charge degrees of freedom are considered and the dot is described by a model which in the scaling limit becomes equivalent to the interacting resonant level model. The time evolution of the current and dot occupancy resulting out of changes of the dot-lead coupling, the dots onsite energy, or the charging energy are studied. Abrupt and smooth parameter changes as well as setups with and without driving bias voltage are consider…
We calculate the nonequilibrium dynamic evolution of a one-dimensional system of two-component fermionic atoms after a strong local quench by using a time-dependent spin-density-functional theory. The interaction quench is also considered to see its influence on the spin-charge separation. It is shown that the charge velocity is larger than the spin velocity for the system of on-site repulsive interaction (Luttinger liquid), and vise versa for the system of on-site attractive interaction (Luther-Emery liquid). We find that both the interaction quench and polarization suppress the spin-charge s…
Dynamical mean-field theory is generalized to solve the nonequilibrium Keldysh boundary problem: a system is started in equilibrium at a temperature T=0.1, a uniform electric field is turned on at t=0, and the system is monitored as it approaches the steady state. The focus here is on the Bloch oscillations of the current and how they decay after their initial appearance near t=0. The system is evolved out to the longest time allowed by our computational resources--in most cases we are unable to reach the steady state. The strongly correlated material is modeled by the spinless Falicov-Kimball…
We study the non equilibrium dynamics in the fermionic Hubbard model after a sudden change of the interaction strength. To this scope, we introduce a time dependent variational approach in the spirit of the Gutzwiller ansatz. At the saddle-point approximation, we find at half filling a sharp transition between two different regimes of small and large coherent oscillations, separated by a critical line of quenches where the system is found to relax. Any finite doping washes out the transition, leaving aside just a sharp crossover. In order to investigate the role of quantum fluctuations, we map…
Dynamical quantum phase transitions are at the forefront of current efforts to understand quantum matter out of equilibrium. Except for a few exactly solvable models, predictions of these critical phenomena typically rely on advanced numerical methods. However, those approaches are mostly restricted to one dimension, making investigations of two-dimensional systems highly challenging. Here, we present evidence of dynamical quantum phase transitions in strongly correlated spin lattices in two dimensions. To this end, we apply our recently developed cumulant method [Phys. Rev. X 11, 041018 (2021…
Phase-change memory (PCM), a promising candidate for next-generation non-volatile memories, exploits quenched glassy and thermodynamically stable crystalline states as reversibly switchable state variables. We demonstrate PCM functions emerging from a charge-configuration degree of freedom in strongly correlated electron systems. Non-volatile reversible switching between a high-resistivity charge-crystalline (or charge-ordered) state and a low-resistivity quenched state, charge glass, is achieved experimentally via heat pulses supplied by optical or electrical means in organic conductors $θ$-(…
We study the non-equlibrium dynamics of an electronic model of competing bond density wave order and $d$-wave superconductivity. In a time-dependent Hartree-Fock+BCS approximation, the dynamics reduces to the equations of motion of operators realizing the generators of SU(4) at each pair of momenta, $(\boldsymbol{k}, -\boldsymbol{k})$, in the Brillouin zone. We compare the results of numerical studies of our model with recent picosecond optical experiments.
Fermi-edge singularity and Anderson's orthogonality catastrophe are paradigmatic examples of non-equilibrium many-body physics in conductors, appearing after a quench is created by the sudden change of a localised potential. We investigate if the signal carried by the quench can be used to transmit a long ranged interaction, reminiscent of the RKKY interaction, but with the inclusion of the full many-body propagation over space and time. We calculate the response of a conductor to two quenches induced by localised states at different times and locations. We show that building up and maintainin…
We study the relaxation dynamics of the one-dimensional Tomonaga-Luttinger model after an interaction quench paying particular attention to the momentum dependence of the two-particle interaction. Several potentials of different analytical form are investigated all leading to universal Luttinger liquid physics in equilibrium. The steady-state fermionic momentum distribution shows universal behavior in the sense of the Luttinger liquid phenomenology. For generic regular potentials the large time decay of the momentum distribution function towards the steady-state value is characterized by a pow…
The energy-dependent scattering of fermions from a localized orbital at an energy-dependent rate $Γ(ε)\propto |ε|^r$ gives rise to quantum critical points (QCPs) in the pseudogap single-impurity Anderson model separating a local moment phase with an unscreened spin moment from a strong-coupling phase which slightly deviates from the screened phase of standard Kondo problem. Using the time-dependent numerical renormalization group (TD-NRG) approach we show that local dynamic properties always equilibrate towards a steady-state value even for quenches across the QCP but with systematic deviation…
Random Fields from Quenched Disorder in an Archetype for Correlated Electrons: the Parallel Spin Stripe Phase of La$_{1.6-x}$Nd$_{0.4}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ at the 1/8 Anomaly
We investigate the non-equilibrium dynamics of the one-dimensional extended Hubbard model after interaction quenches. In strong-coupling regime with large on-site interaction, the ground states of this model with small and large nearest-neighbor interactions are in spin-density-wave and charge-density-wave phases, respectively. Combining twisted boundary conditions with the time-dependent Lanczos method, we obtain snapshots of the time-dependent single-particle spectrum after quenches. We find that for quench within the same phase, the single-particle spectrum becomes close to that of the quen…
We develop an alternative time-dependent numerical renormalization group (TDNRG) formalism for multiple quenches and implement it to study the response of a quantum impurity system to a general pulse. Within this approach, we reduce the contribution of the NRG approximation to numerical errors in the time evolution of observables by a formulation that avoids the use of the generalized overlap matrix elements in our previous multiple-quench TDNRG formalism [Nghiem {\em et al.,} Phys. Rev. B {\bf 89}, 075118 (2014); Phys. Rev. B {\bf 90}, 035129 (2014)]. We demonstrate that the formalism yields …
We investigate the time evolution of the Kondo resonance in response to a quench by applying the time-dependent numerical renormalization group (TDNRG) approach to the Anderson impurity model in the strong correlation limit. For this purpose, we derive within TDNRG a numerically tractable expression for the retarded two-time nonequilibrium Green function $G(t+t',t)$, and its associated time-dependent spectral function, $A(ω,t)$, for times $t$ both before and after the quench. Quenches from both mixed valence and Kondo correlated initial states to Kondo correlated final states are considered. F…
We examine the dynamics of a correlated quantum dot in the mixed valence regime. We perform numerically exact calculations of the current after a quantum quench from equilibrium by rapidly applying a bias voltage in a wide range of initial temperatures. The current exhibits short equilibration times and saturates upon the decrease of temperature at all times, indicating Kondo behavior both in the transient regime and in steady state. The time-dependent current saturation temperature matches the Kondo temperature at small times or small voltages; a substantially increased value is observed outs…
The time-dependent numerical renormalization group method (TDNRG) [Anders et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 95}, 196801 (2005)] was recently generalized to multiple quenches and arbitrary finite temperatures [Nghiem et al., Phys. Rev. B {\bf 89}, 075118 (2014)] by using the full density matrix approach [Weichselbaum et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 99}, 076402 (2007)]. In this paper, we numerically implement this formalism to study the response of a quantum impurity system to a general pulse and periodic driving which are approximated by a sufficient number of quenches. We show how the NRG approximat…
We study the time evolution and steady state of the charge current in a single-impurity Anderson model, using matrix product states techniques. A nonequilibrium situation is imposed by applying a bias voltage across one-dimensional tight-binding leads. Focusing on particle-hole symmetry, we extract current-voltage characteristics from universal low-bias up to high-bias regimes, where band effects start to play a dominant role. We discuss three quenches, which after strongly quench-dependent transients yield the same steady-state current. Among these quenches we identify those favorable for ext…
We use non-equilibrium dynamical mean-field theory to demonstrate the existence of a critical interaction in the real-time dynamics of the Hubbard model after an interaction quench. The critical point is characterized by fast thermalization and separates weak-coupling and strong-coupling regimes in which the relaxation is delayed due to prethermalization on intermediate timescales. This dynamical phase transition should be observable in experiments on trapped fermionic atoms.
Motivated by the rapidly growing possibilities for experiments with ultracold atoms in optical lattices we investigate the thermodynamic properties of correlated lattice fermions in the presence of an external spin-dependent random potential. The corresponding model, a Hubbard model with spin-dependent local random potentials, is solved within dynamical mean-field theory. This allows us to present a comprehensive picture of the thermodynamic properties of this system. In particular, we show that for a fixed total number of fermions spin-dependent disorder induces a magnetic polarization. The m…
We investigate several definitions of the time-dependent spectral function $A(ω,t)$ of the Anderson impurity model following a quench and within the time-dependent numerical renormalization group method. In terms of the two-time retarded Green function $G^r(t_1,t_2)$, the definitions differ in the choice of the time variable $t$ with respect to $t_1$ and/or $t_2$. In a previous study [Nghiem {\it et al.} Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 156601 (2017)], we investigated the spectral function, obtained from the Fourier transform of ${\rm Im}[G^r(t_1,t_2)]$ w.r.t. the time difference $t'=t_1-t_2$, with $t=t_…
Motivated by recent experiments on interacting cold atoms, we analyze interaction quenches in Luttinger liquids (LL), where the interaction is ramped from zero to a finite value within a finite time. The fermionic single particle density matrix reveals several regions of spatial and temporal coordinates relative to the quench time, termed as Fermi liquid, sudden quench LL, adiabatic LL regimes, and a LL regime with time dependent exponent. The various regimes can also be observed in the momentum distribution of the fermions, directly accessible through time of flight experiments. Most of our r…
Long-lived single-frequency oscillations in the local non-equilibrium dynamics of a quantum many-body system is an exceptional phenomenon. In fact, till now, it has never been observed, nor predicted, for the physically relevant case where a system is prepared to be quenched from one quantum phase to another. Here we show how the quench dynamics of the entanglement spectrum may reveal the emergence of such oscillations in a correlated quantum system with Kondo impurities. The oscillations we find are characterized by a single frequency. This frequency is independent of the amount of energy rel…
By propagating the many-body Schrödinger equation, we determine the exact time-dependent Kohn-Sham potential for a system of strongly correlated electrons which undergo field-induced tunneling. Numerous features are entirely absent from the approximations commonly used in time-dependent density-functional theory. The self-interaction correction is strong and time dependent, owing to electron localization, and prominent dynamic spatial potential steps arise from minima in the charge density, as modified by the Coulomb interaction experienced by the partially tunneled electron.
We investigate a class of exactly solvable quantum quench protocols with a finite quench rate in systems of one dimensional non-relativistic fermions in external harmonic oscillator or inverted harmonic oscillator potentials, with time dependent masses and frequencies. These hamiltonians arise, respectively, in harmonic traps, and the $c=1$ Matrix Model description of two dimensional string theory with time dependent string coupling. We show how the dynamics is determined by a single function of time which satisfies a generalized Ermakov-Pinney equation. The quench protocols we consider asympt…
Correlated density matrix theory is generalized to investigate equilibrium properties of normal Fermi Liquids such as 3He and nuclear matter at nonzero temperatures. The results also generalize the Fermi-hypernetted-chain technique that is familiar from studies of the ground state of correlated fermions. By employing the concept of renormalized bosons and fermions the formal results are cast in a form that permits the direct evaluation of the statistical properties of the correlated liquid such as the entropy and the specific heat at constant volume among other quantities.
We study non-equilibrium dynamics induced by a sudden quench of strongly correlated Hamiltonians with all-to-all interactions. By relying on a Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) based quench protocol, we show that the time evolution of simple spin-spin correlation functions is highly sensitive to the degree of locality of the corresponding operators, once an appropriate set of fundamental fields is identified. By tracking the time-evolution of specific spin-spin correlation functions and their decay, we argue that it is possible to distinguish between operator hopping and operator growth dynamics; the la…
Infinite projected entangled pair states (iPEPS) provide a convenient variational description of infinite, translationally-invariant two-dimensional quantum states. However, the simulation of local excitations is not directly possible due to the translationally-invariant ansatz. Furthermore, as iPEPS are either identical or orthogonal, expectation values between different states as required during the evaluation of non-equal-time correlators are ill-defined. Here, we show that by introducing auxiliary states on each site, it becomes possible to simulate both local excitations and evaluate non-…
The time-dependent numerical renormalization group (td-NRG) [Anders et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 95}, 196801 (2006)] offers the prospect of investigating in a non-perturbative manner the time-dependence of local observables of interacting quantum impurity models at all time scales following a quantum quench. We present a generalization of this method to arbitrary finite temperature by making use of the full density matrix [Weichselbaum et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 99}, 076402 (2007)]. We show that all terms in the projected density matrix $ρ^{i\to f} = ρ^{++} + ρ^{--} + ρ^{+-}+ρ^{-+}$ in the t…
We investigate the time evolution of density, spin, and pairing correlation functions in one-dimensional $t$-$J$ models following a quantum quench using the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (tDMRG). While density and spin correlation functions show the typical light-cone behavior over a wide range of parameters, in pairing correlation functions it is strongly suppressed. This is supported by time-dependent BCS theory, where the light-cone in the pairing correlation functions is found to be at least two orders of magnitude weaker than in the density correlator. These findings…
Thermalization play a central role in out-of-equilibrium physics of ultracold atoms or electronic transport phenomena. On the other hand, entanglement concepts have proven to be extremely useful to investigate quantum phases of matter. Here, it is argued that **bipartite** entanglement measures provide key information on out-of-equilibrium states and might therefore offer stringent thermalization criteria. This is illustrated by considering a global quench in an (extended) XXZ spin-1/2 chain across its (zero-temperature) quantum critical point. A non-local **bipartition** of the chain **preser…
The momentum-dependent local-ansatz (MLA) wavefunction describes well correlated electrons in solids in both the weak and strong interaction regimes. In order to apply the theory to the realistic system, we have extended the MLA to the first-principles version using the tight-binding LDA+U Hamiltonian. We demonstrate for the paramagnetic Fe that the first-principles MLA can describe a reasonable correlation energy gain and suppression of charge fluctuations due to electron correlations. Furthermore, we show that the MLA yields a distinct momentum dependence of the momentum distribution, and th…
Systematic deviations from standard Fermi-liquid behavior have been widely observed and documented in several classes of strongly correlated metals. For many of these systems, mounting evidence is emerging that the anomalous behavior is most likely triggered by the interplay of quenched disorder and strong electronic correlations. In this review, we present a broad overview of such disorder-driven non-Fermi-liquid behavior, and discuss various examples where the anomalies have been studied in detail. We describe both their phenomenological aspects as observed in experiment, and the current the…
The dynamics of relative entropy and $l_{1}$-norm of coherence, as well as, the Wigner-Yanase-skew and quantum Fisher information are studied for a time-dependent coupled XY spin chain in presence of a time-dependent transverse magnetic field. Independent of the initial state of the system and while the relative entropy of coherence, $l_{1}$-norm of coherence, and quantum Fisher information are incapable, surprisingly, the dynamic Wigner-Yanase-skew information can truly spotlight the equilibrium critical point. We also observe that when the system is quenched to the critical point, these quan…
The time-dependent numerical renormalization-group approach (TD-NRG), originally devised for tracking the real-time dynamics of quantum-impurity systems following a single quantum quench, is extended to multiple switching events. This generalization of the TD-NRG encompasses the possibility of periodic switching, allowing for coherent control of strongly correlated systems by an external time-dependent field. To this end, we have embedded the TD-NRG in a hybrid framework that combines the outstanding capabilities of the numerical renormalization group to systematically construct the effective …
