This colloquium gives an overview of recent theoretical and experimental progress in the area of nonequilibrium dynamics of isolated quantum systems. We particularly focus on quantum quenches: the temporal evolution following a sudden or slow change of the coupling constants of the system Hamiltonian. We discuss several aspects of the slow dynamics in driven systems and emphasize the universality of such dynamics in gapless systems with specific focus on dynamics near continuous quantum phase transitions. We also review recent progress on understanding thermalization in closed systems through the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis and discuss relaxation in integrable systems. Finally we overview key experiments probing quantum dynamics in cold atom systems and put them in the context of our current theoretical understanding.
We set up a mesoscopic theory for interacting Brownian particles embedded in a nonequilibrium environment, starting from the microscopic interacting many-body theory. Using nonequilibrium linear response theory, we characterize the effective dynamical interactions on the mesoscopic scale and the statistics of the nonequilibrium environmental noise, arising upon integrating out the fast degrees of freedom. As hallmarks of nonequilibrium, the breakdown of the fluctuation-dissipation and action-reaction relations for Brownian degrees of freedom are exemplified with two prototypical models for the…
We consider generic interacting chain of qubits, which are coupled at the edges to baths of fixed polarizations. We can determine the nonequilibrium steady states, described by the fixed point of the Lindblad Master Equation. Under rather general assumptions about local pumping and interactions, symmetries of the reduced density matrix are revealed. The symmetries drastically restrict the form of the steady density matrices in such a way that an exponentially large subset of one--point and many--point correlation functions are found to vanish. As an example we show how in a Heisenberg spin cha…
A statistical approach to a self-consistent description of kinetic and hydrodynamic processes in systems of interacting particles is formulated on the basis of the nonequilibrium statistical operator method by D.N.Zubarev. It is shown how to obtain the kinetic equation of the revised Enskog theory for a hard sphere model, the kinetic equations for multistep potentials of interaction and the Enskog-Landau kinetic equation for a system of charged hard spheres. The BBGKY hierarchy is analyzed on the basis of modified group expansions. Generalized transport equations are obtained in view of a self…
We investigate a novel type of Langevin model that describes the nonequilibrium dynamics of a classical particle interacting with a spatially extended environment. In this model, a particle, which interacts with the environment through the nonlinear interaction Hamiltonian, is driven by a constant external force, and subsequently, it reaches a nontrivial nonequilibrium steady state. We derive an effective Langevin equation for the particle in the nonequilibrium steady states. Using this equation, we calculate the effective temperature defined as the ratio of the correlation function of the vel…
We propose a new model suitable for a nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of electrical conductors. The model consists of classical electrons and atoms. The atoms compose a lattice vibration system. The electrons are scattered by electron-electron and electron-atom interactions. Since the scattering cross section is physically more important than the functional form of a scattering potential, we propose to devise the electron-atom interaction potential in such a way that its scattering cross section agrees with that of quantum-mechanical one. To demonstrate advantages of the prop…
We construct explicit examples of one-dimensional driven diffusive systems for two and three species of interacting particles, defined by asymmetric dynamical rules which do not obey detailed balance, but whose nonequilibrium stationary-state measure coincides with a prescribed equilibrium Gibbs measure. For simplicity, the measures considered in this construction only involve nearest-neighbor interactions. For two species, the dynamics thus obtained generically has five free parameters, and does not obey pairwise balance in general. The latter property is satisfied only by the totally asymmet…
The standard formulation of tunneling transport rests on an open-boundary modeling. There, conserving approximations to nonequilibrium Green function or quantum-statistical mechanics provide consistent but computational costly approaches; alternatively, use of density-dependent ballistic-transport calculations [e.g., Phys. Rev. B 52, 5335 (1995)], here denoted `DBT', provide computationally efficient (approximate) atomistic characterizations of the electron behavior but has until now lacked a formal justification. This paper presents an exact, variational nonequilibrium thermodynamic theory fo…
We use the coordinate Bethe ansatz to exactly calculate matrix elements between eigenstates of the Lieb-Liniger model of one-dimensional bosons interacting via a two-body delta-potential. We investigate the static correlation functions of the zero-temperature ground state and their dependence on interaction strength, and analyze the effects of system size in the crossover from few-body to mesoscopic regimes for up to seven particles. We also obtain time-dependent nonequilibrium correlation functions for five particles following quenches of the interaction strength from two distinct initial sta…
We demonstrate that stability and chaotic-transport features of paradigmatic nonequilibrium many-body systems, i.e., periodically kicked and interacting particles, can deviate significantly from the expected ones of full instability and normal chaotic diffusion for arbitrarily strong chaos, arbitrary number of particles, and different interaction cases. We rigorously show that under the latter general conditions there exist {\em fully stable} orbits, accelerator-mode (AM) fixed points, performing ballistic motion in momentum. It is numerically shown that an {\em "isolated chaotic zone"} (ICZ),…
Nonequilibrium full counting statistics of multicomponent strongly-interacting quantum gases with defects
Institute for Space Sciences（空间科学研究所）；London Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Royal Institution（伦敦数学科学研究所，皇家学会）；Department of Physics, University of Oradea（奥拉迪亚大学物理系）；Department of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics（布达佩斯技术与经济大学物理学院理论物理系）；MTA-BME Lendület “Momentum” Open Quantum Systems Research Group, Budapest University of Technology and Economics（布达佩斯技术与经济大学 MTA-BME 领导力“动量”开放量子系统研究组）
Exact solutions for local equilibrium and nonequilibrium out-of-time-ordered correlation (OTOC) functions are obtained for a lattice fermion model with on-site interactions, namely the Falicov-Kimball (FK) model, in the large dimensional and thermodynamic limit. Our approach is based on the nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory generalized to an extended Kadanoff-Baym contour. We find that the density-density OTOC is most enhanced at intermediate coupling around the metal-insulator phase transition. In the high-temperature limit, the OTOC remains nontrivially finite and interaction-depend…
We study non-equilibrium (NE) fluctuation-dissipation (FD) relations in the context of quantum thermoelectric transport through a two-terminal nanodevice, in the steady-state and with interaction. The FD relations for the one- and two-particle correlation functions are derived. Numerical applications, using self-consistent NE Green's functions calculations, are given for electron-phonon interaction in the central region. We find that the FD relations for the one-particle correlation function are strongly dependent on both the NE conditions and the interactions, while they are much less depende…
We investigate the open dynamics of a chain of interacting spins using the quantized version of the GENERIC equation from classical out-of-equilibrium thermodynamics. We focus on both equilibrium and nonequilibrium scenarios for chains of different sizes. While in the equilibrium case we demonstrate thermal equilibration to the correct many-body Gibbs density matrix, in the nonequilibrium dynamics we show a ballistic-to-diffusive transition in the steady-state energy current and a scaling that is consistent with Fourier's law of heat transfer.
Driven diffusive systems constitute paradigmatic models of nonequilibrium physics. Among them, a driven lattice gas known as the asymmetric simple exclusion process (ASEP) is the most prominent example for which many intriguing exact results have been obtained. After summarizing key findings, including the mapping of the ASEP to quantum spin chains, we discuss the recently introduced Brownian asymmetric simple exclusion process (BASEP) as a related class of driven diffusive system with continuous space dynamics. In the BASEP, driven Brownian motion of hardcore-interacting particles through one…
Based on the formalism of thermo field dynamics we propose a concept of nonequilibrium Fock space and nonequilibrium quasiparticles for quantum many-body system in nonequilibrium steady state. We develop a general theory as well as demonstrate the utility of the approach on the example of electron transport through the interacting region. The proposed approach is compatible with advanced methods of electronic structure calculations such as coupled cluster theory and configuration interaction.
This paper presents a nonequilibrium, first-principles, thermodynamic-ensemble based model for the relaxation process of interacting non-equilibrium systems. This model is formulated using steepest-entropy-ascent quantum thermodynamics (SEAQT) and its equation of motion for a grand canonical ensemble and is applied to a many particle system of classical or indistinguishable particles. Two kinds of interactions are discussed, including pure heat diffusion and heat and mass diffusion together. Since no local equilibrium assumption is made, the conjugate fluxes and forces are intrinsic to the sub…
We present a hierarchical equations of motion approach, which allows a numerically exact simulation of nonequilibrium transport in general open quantum systems involving multiple macroscopic bosonic and fermionic environments. The performance of the method is demonstrated for a model of a nanosystem, which involves interacting electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom and is coupled to fermionic and bosonic baths. The results show the intricate interplay of electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom in this nonequilibrium transport scenario for both voltage and thermally driven transpor…
We develop a general kinetic theory framework to describe the hydrodynamics of strongly interacting, nonequilibrium quantum systems in which integrability is weakly broken, leaving a few residual conserved quantities. This framework is based on a generalized relaxation-time approximation; it gives a simple, but surprisingly accurate, prescription for computing nonequilibrium transport even in strongly interacting systems. This approximation reproduces the crossover from generalized to conventional hydrodynamics in interacting one-dimensional Bose gases with integrability-breaking perturbations…
We apply the Liouville-von Neumann (LvN) approach to open systems to describe the nonequilibrium quantum evolution. The Liouville-von Neumann approach is a unified method that can be applied to both time-independent (closed) and time-dependent (open) systems and to both equilibrium and nonequilibrium systems. We study the nonequilibrium quantum evolution of oscillator models for open boson and fermion systems
We develop a superoperator coupled cluster method for nonequilibrium open many-body quantum systems described by the Lindblad master equation. The method is universal and applicable to systems of interacting fermions, bosons or their mixtures. We present a general theory and consider its application to the problem of quantum transport through the system with electron-phonon correlations. The results are assessed against the perturbation theory and nonequilibrium configuration interaction theory calculations.
An overview of recent studies of nonequilibrium bound interfaces is given. Attention is focused on Kardar-Parisi-Zhang interfaces in the presence of upper and lower walls, interacting via short-- and long--ranged potentials. A comparison with equilibrium interfaces is carried out, and connections with other nonequilbrium systems are illustrated. Experimental realizations of the phenomenology described in this article are briefly discussed.
We present a novel numerical approach to track the response of a quantum system to an external perturbation that is progressively switched-on. The method is applied, within the framework of the density matrix renormalization group technique, to track current-carrying states of interacting fermions in one dimension and in presence of an Aharonov-Bohm magnetic flux. This protocol allows us to access highly excited states. We also discuss the connection with the entanglement entropy of these excited states.
We study asymmetric exclusion processes (TASEP) on a nonuniform one-dimensional ring consisting of two segments having unequal hopping rates, or {\em defects}. We allow weak particle nonconservation via Langmuir kinetics (LK), that are parameterised by generic unequal attachment and detachment rates. For an extended defect, in the thermodynamic limit the system generically displays inhomogeneous density profiles in the steady state - the faster segment is either in a phase with spatially varying density having no density discontinuity, or a phase with a discontinuous density changes. Nonequili…
We present some applications of an Interacting Particle System (IPS) methodology to the field of Molecular Dynamics. This IPS method allows several simulations of a switched random process to keep closer to equilibrium at each time, thanks to a selection mechanism based on the relative virtual work induced on the system. It is therefore an efficient improvement of usual non-equilibrium simulations, which can be used to compute canonical averages, free energy differences, and typical transitions paths.
A simple reweighting scheme is proposed for Monte Carlo simulations of interacting particle systems, permitting one to study various parameter values in a single study, and improving efficiency by an order of magnitude. Unlike earlier reweighting schemes, the present approach does not require knowledge of the stationary probability distribution, and so is applicable out of equilibrium. The method is applied to the contact process in two and three dimensions, yielding the critical parameter and spreading exponents to unprecedented precision.
We consider a one-dimensional XX spin chain in a nonequilibrium setting with a Lindblad-type boundary driving. By calculating large deviation rate function in the thermodynamic limit, being a generalization of free energy to a nonequilibrium setting, we obtain a complete distribution of current, including closed expressions for lower-order cumulants. We also identify two phase-transition-like behaviors in either the thermodynamic limit, at which the current probability distribution becomes discontinuous, or, at maximal driving, when the range of possible current values changes discontinuously.…
Although most studies of strongly correlated systems away from equilibrium have focused on clean systems, it is well known that disorder may significantly modify observed properties in various nontrivial ways. The nonequilibrium interplay of interaction and disorder in these systems thus requires further investigation. In the present paper, we use the recently developed nonequilibrium DMFT+CPA embedding scheme, that combines both the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) and the coherent potential approximation (CPA) nonequilibrium extensions, to characterize the relaxation and the thermalization…
We develop a general framework for the steady-state response of dissipative quantum systems. We concretely derive three different, but equivalent, forms of the quantum response function. We discuss for each of them the role of the noncommutativity of quantum operators and establish links to the Kubo response theory for closed quantum systems. We show in particular that the equilibrium response vanishes for perturbations that commute with the unperturbed Hamiltonian while the steady-state response does not, highlighting the profound difference between the two.
For open systems described by the quantum Markovian master equation, we study a possible extension of the Clausius equality to quasistatic operations between nonequilibrium steady states (NESSs). We investigate the excess heat divided by temperature (i.e., excess entropy production) which is transferred into the system during the operations. We derive a geometrical expression for the excess entropy production, which is analogous to the Berry phase in unitary evolution. Our result implies that in general one cannot define a scalar potential whose difference coincides with the excess entropy pro…
Exciton-polaritons constitute a unique realization of a quantum fluid interacting with its environment. Using Selenide based microcavities, we exploit this feature to warm up a polariton condensate in a controlled way and monitor its spatial coherence. We determine directly the amount of heat picked up by the condensate by measuring the phonon-polariton scattering rate and comparing it with the loss rate. We find that upon increasing the heating rate, the spatial coherence length decreases markedly, while localized phase structures vanish, in good agreement with a stochastic mean field theory.…
Fluctuation theorems (FTs), which describe some universal properties of nonequilibrium fluctuations, are examined from a quantum perspective and derived by introducing a two-point measurement on the system. FTs for closed and open systems driven out of equilibrium by an external time-dependent force, and for open systems maintained in a nonequilibrium steady-state by nonequilibrium boundary conditions, are derived from a unified approach. Applications to fermion and boson transport in quantum junctions are discussed. Quantum master equations and Green's functions techniques for computing the e…
A nonequilibrium system of locally interacting elements in a lattice with an absorbing order-disorder phase transition is studied under the effect of additional interacting fields. These fields are shown to produce interesting effects in the collective behavior of this system. Both for autonomous and external fields, disorder grows in the system when the probability of the elements to interact with the field is increased. There exists a threshold value of this probability beyond which the system is always disordered. The domain of parameters of the ordered regime is larger for nonuniform local…
Transport process in molecular chain in nonequilibrium stationary state is theoretically investigated. The molecule is interacting at its both ends with thermal baths which has different temperatures, while no dissipation mechanism is contained inside the molecular chain. We have first obtained the nonequilibrium stationary state outside the Hilbert space in terms of the complex spectral representation of Liouvillian. The nonequilibrium stationary state is obtained as an eigenstate of the Liouvillian which is constructed through the collision invariant of the kinetic equation. The eigenstate o…
The concept of work is studied in quantum thermostatistics of a system surrounded by an environment and driven by an external force. It is found that there emerges the gauge theoretical structure in a nonequilibrium process, the field of which is referred to as the work gauge field. The thermodynamic work as the flux of the work gauge field is considered for a cyclic process in the space of the external-force parameters. As an example, the system of a spin-1/2 interacting with an external magnetic field is analyzed. This geometric effect may be observed, for example, in an NMR experiment and c…
Spontaneous synchronization is a remarkable collective effect observed in nature, whereby a population of oscillating units, which have diverse natural frequencies and are in weak interaction with one another, evolves to spontaneously exhibit collective oscillations at a common frequency. The Kuramoto model provides the basic analytical framework to study spontaneous synchronization. The model comprises limit-cycle oscillators with distributed natural frequencies interacting through a mean-field coupling. Although more than forty years have passed since its introduction, the model continues to…
We derive a simple closed analytical expression for the total entropy production along a single stochastic trajectory of a Brownian particle diffusing on a periodic potential under an external constant force. By numerical simulations we compute the probability distribution functions of the entropy and satisfactorily test many of the predictions based on Seifert's integral fluctuation theorem. The results presented for this simple model clearly illustrate the practical features and implications derived from such a result of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics.
We develop the stochastic approach to thermodynamics based on the stochastic dynamics, which can be discrete (master equation) continuous (Fokker-Planck equation), and on two assumptions concerning entropy. The first is the definition of entropy itself and the second, the definition of entropy production rate which is nonnegative and vanishes in thermodynamic equilibrium. Based on these assumptions we study interacting systems with many degrees of freedom in equilibrium or out of thermodynamic equilibrium, and how the macroscopic laws are derived from the stochastic dynamics. These studies inc…
The theoretical description of strongly correlated quantum systems out of equilibrium presents several challenges and a number of open questions persist. In this paper we focus on nonlinear electronic transport through an interacting quantum dot maintained at finite bias using a concept introduced by Hershfield [Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 2134 (1993)] whereby one can express such nonequilibrium quantum impurity models in terms of the system's Lippmann-Schwinger operators. These scattering operators allow one to reformulate the nonequilibrium problem as an effective equilibrium problem associated wit…
We derive general properties, which hold for both quantum and classical systems, of response functions of nonequilibrium steady states. We clarify differences from those of equilibrium states. In particular, sum rules and asymptotic behaviors are derived, and their implications are discussed. Since almost no assumptions are made, our results are applicable to diverse physical systems. We also demonstrate our results by a molecular dynamics simulation of a many-body interacting system.
We propose a nonequilibrium variational polaron transformation, based on an ansatz for nonequilibrium steady state (NESS) with an effective temperature, to study quantum heat transport at the nanoscale. By combining the variational polaron transformed master equation with the full counting statistics, we have extended the applicability of the polaron-based framework to study nonequilibrium process beyond the super-Ohmic bath models. Previously, the polaron-based framework for quantum heat transport reduces exactly to the non-interacting blip approximation (NIBA) formalism for Ohmic bath models…
A nonequilibrium master equation analysis for N interacting bosons, with Bogoliubov quasiparticles as the reservoir is presented. The analysis is based on a simplified Hamiltonian. The steady state solution yields the equilibrium density matrix. The results are in good agreement with and extend our previous rigorous canonical ensemble equilibrium statistical treatment leading to a quantum theory of the atom laser.
Motivated by a recent work on the metabolism of carbohydrates in bacteria, we study the kinetics and thermodynamics of two classic models for reversible polymerization, one preserving the total polymer concentration and the other one not. The chemical kinetics is described by rate equations following the mass-action law. We consider a closed system and nonequilibrium initial conditions and show that the system dynamically evolves towards equilibrium where detailed balance is satisfied. The entropy production during this process can be expressed as the time derivative of a Lyapunov function. Wh…
We study the non-equilibrium aging behavior of the gauge glass model in three dimensions at the critical temperature. We perform Monte Carlo simulations with a Metropolis update, and correlation and response functions are calculated for different waiting times. We obtain a multiplicative aging scaling of the correlation and response functions, calculating the aging exponent $b$ and the nonequilibrium autocorrelation decay exponent $λ_c/z_c$. We also analyze the fluctuation-dissipation relationship at the critical temperature, obtaining the critical fluctuation-dissipation ratio $X_\infty$. By …
We study a model of self propelled particles exhibiting run and tumble dynamics on lattice. This non-Brownian diffusion is characterised by a random walk with a finite persistence length between changes of direction, and is inspired by the motion of bacteria such as E. coli. By defining a class of models with multiple species of particle and transmutation between species we can recreate such dynamics. These models admit exact analytical results whilst also forming a counterpart to previous continuum models of run and tumble dynamics. We solve the externally driven non-interacting and zero-rang…
These notes are based on lectures delivered by the authors at a Langeoog seminar of SFB/TR12 "Symmetries and universality in mesoscopic systems" to a mixed audience of mathematicians and theoretical physicists. After a brief outline of the basic physical concepts of equilibrium and nonequilibrium states, the one-dimensional simple exclusion process is introduced as a paradigmatic nonequilibrium interacting particle system. The stationary measure on the ring is derived and the idea of the hydrodynamic limit is sketched. We then introduce the phenomenological Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation a…
We combine computer simulations and analytical theory to investigate the glassy dynamics in dense assemblies of athermal particles evolving under the sole influence of self-propulsion. The simulations reveal that when the persistence time of the self-propelled particles is increased, the local structure becomes more pronounced whereas the long-time dynamics first accelerates and then slows down. These seemingly contradictory evolutions are explained by constructing a nonequilibrium mode-coupling-like theory for interacting self-propelled particles. To predict the collective dynamics the theory…
