All Publications

We consider a non-interacting Fermi gas in d dimensions, both in the non-relativistic and relativistic case. The system of size Ld is initially prepared into two halves L and R, each of them thermalized at two different temperatures, TL and TR respectively. At time t = 0 the two halves are put in contact and the entire system is left to evolve unitarily. We show that, in the thermodynamic limit, the time evolution of the particle and energy densities is perfectly described by a semiclassical approach which permits to analytically evaluate the corresponding stationary currents. In particular, in the case of non-relativistic fermions, we find a low-temperature behavior for the particle and energy currents which is independent from the dimensionality d of the system, being proportional to the difference TL2-TR2 . Only in one spatial dimension (d = 1) do the results for the non-relativistic case agree with the massless relativistic ones. © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd and SISSA Medialab srl.

We consider a quantum quench in a noninteracting fermionic one-dimensional field theory. The system of size L is initially prepared into two halves L ([-L/2,0]) and R ([0,L/2]), each of them thermalized at two different temperatures TL and TR, respectively. At a given time, the two halves are joined together by a local coupling and the whole system is left to evolve unitarily. For an infinitely extended system (L→), we show that the time evolution of the particle and energy densities is well described via a hydrodynamic approach which allows us to evaluate the correspondent stationary currents. We show, in such a case, that the two-point correlation functions are deduced, at large times, from a simple nonequilibrium steady state. Otherwise, whenever the boundary conditions are retained (in a properly defined thermodynamic limit), any current is suppressed at large times, and the stationary state is described by a generalized Gibbs ensemble, which is diagonal and depends only on the post-quench mode occupation. © 2014 American Physical Society.

We consider the time evolution after quantum quenches in the spin-12 Heisenberg XXZ quantum spin chain with Ising-type anisotropy. The time evolution of short-distance spin-spin correlation functions is studied by numerical tensor network techniques for a variety of initial states, including Néel and Majumdar-Ghosh states and the ground state of the XXZ chain at large values of the anisotropy. The various correlators appear to approach stationary values, which are found to be in good agreement with the results of exact calculations of stationary expectation values in appropriate generalized Gibbs ensembles. In particular, our analysis shows how symmetries of the post-quench Hamiltonian that are broken by particular initial states are restored at late times. © 2014 American Physical Society.

It is widely believed that the stationary properties after a quantum quench in integrable systems can be described by a generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE), even if all of the analytical evidence is based on free theories in which the pre- and postquench modes are linearly related. In contrast, we consider the experimentally relevant quench of the one-dimensional Bose gas from zero to infinite interaction, in which the relation between modes is nonlinear, and consequently Wick's theorem does not hold. We provide exact analytical results for the time evolution of the dynamical density-density correlation function at any time after the quench and we prove that its stationary value is described by a GGE in which Wick's theorem is restored. © 2014 American Physical Society.

We analyze the entanglement properties of the asymptotic steady state after a quench from free to hard-core bosons in one dimension. The Rényi and von Neumann entanglement entropies are found to be extensive, and the latter coincides with the thermodynamic entropy of the generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE). Computing the spectrum of the two-point function, we provide exact analytical results for both the leading extensive parts and the subleading terms for the entropies as well as for the cumulants of the particle-number fluctuations. We also compare the extensive part of the entanglement entropy with the thermodynamic ones, showing that the GGE entropy equals the entanglement one and it is twice the diagonal entropy. © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd and SISSA Medialab srl.

We consider the non-equilibrium dynamics of a gas of impenetrable bosons released from a harmonic trapping potential to a circle. The many-body dynamics is solved analytically and the time dependence of all the physically relevant correlations is described. We prove that, for large times and in the thermodynamic limit, the reduced density matrix of any subsystem converges to a generalized Gibbs ensemble as a consequence of the integrability of the model. We discuss the approach to stationary behavior at late times. We also describe the time dependence of the entanglement entropy which attains a very simple form in the stationary state. © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd and SISSA Medialab srl.

We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of a Tonks-Girardeau gas released from a parabolic trap to a circle. We present the exact analytic solution of the many body dynamics and prove that, for large times and in a properly defined thermodynamic limit, the reduced density matrix of any finite subsystem converges to a generalized Gibbs ensemble. The equilibration mechanism is expected to be the same for all one-dimensional systems. © 2013 American Physical Society.

We study the out-of-equilibrium time evolution after a local quench connecting two anisotropic spin-1/2 XXZ Heisenberg open chains via an impurity bond. The dynamics is obtained by means of the adaptive time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group. We show that the entanglement entropies (von Neumann and Rényi) in the presence of a weakened bond depend on the sign of the bulk interaction. For an attractive interaction (Δ < 0), the defect turns out to be irrelevant and the evolution is asymptotically equivalent to the one without defect obtained by conformal field theory. For a repulsive interaction (Δ > 0), the defect is relevant and the entanglement saturates to a finite value. This out-of-equilibrium behavior generalizes the well-known results for the ground-state entanglement entropy of the model. © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd.

We study the quantum evolution of a cloud of hard-core bosons loaded on a one-dimensional optical lattice after its sudden release from a harmonic trap. Just after the trap has been removed, a linear ramp potential is applied, mimicking the so-called Galileo ramp experiment. The nonequilibrium expansion of the bosonic cloud is elucidated through a hydrodynamical description which is compared to the exact numerical evolution obtained by exact diagonalization on finite lattice sizes. The system is found to exhibit a rich behavior, showing, in particular, Bloch oscillations of a self-trapped condensate and an ejected particle density leading to two diverging entangled condensates. Depending on the initial density of the gas different regimes of Josephson-like oscillations are observed. At low densities, the trapped part of the cloud is in a superfluid phase that oscillates in time as a whole. At higher densities, the trapped condensate is in a mixed superfluid-Mott-insulator phase that show a breathing regime for steep enough potential ramps. © 2013 American Physical Society.

The quantum evolution of a cloud of bosons initially localized on part of a one-dimensional optical lattice and suddenly subjected to a linear ramp is studied, realizing a quantum analog of the "Galileo ramp" experiment. The main remarkable effects of this realistic setup are revealed using analytical and numerical methods. Only part of the particles are ejected for a high enough ramp, while the others remain self-trapped. Then, the trapped density profile displays rich dynamics with Josephson-type oscillations around a plateau. This setup, by coupling bound states to propagative modes, creates two diverging condensates for which the entanglement is computed and related to the equilibrium one. Further, we address the role of integrability on the entanglement and on the damping and thermalization of simple observables. © 2012 American Physical Society.

We describe the coherent quantum evolution of a quantum many-body system with a time-dependent power-law confining potential. The amplitude of the inhomogeneous potential is driven in time along a nonlinear ramp which crosses a critical point. Using Kibble-Zurek-like scaling arguments we derive general scaling laws for the density of excitations and energy excess generated during the nonlinear sweep of the confining potential. It is shown that, with respect to the sweeping rate, the densities follow algebraic laws with exponents that depend on the space-time properties of the potential and on the scaling dimensions of the densities. We support our scaling predictions with both analytical and numerical results on the Ising quantum chain with an inhomogeneous transverse field varying in time. © 2011 American Physical Society.

We analyze the coherent quantum evolution of a many-particle system after slowly sweeping a power-law confining potential. The amplitude of the confining potential is varied in time along a power-law ramp such that the many-particle system finally reaches or crosses a critical point. Under this protocol we derive general scaling laws for the density of excitations created during the nonadiabatic sweep of the confining potential. It is found that the mean excitation density follows an algebraic law as a function of the sweeping rate with an exponent that depends on the space-time properties of the potential. We confirm our scaling laws by first order adiabatic calculation and exact results on the Ising quantum chain with a varying transverse field. © 2010 The American Physical Society.

We consider the influence of a power-law deviation from the critical coupling such that a system is critical at its surface. We develop a scaling theory showing that such a perturbation introduces a new length scale which governs the scaling behaviour of the density profiles as well as the finite-size behaviour of the surface properties. Exact results are obtained for the Ising quantum chain when the perturbation varies linearly whereas the quadratic perturbation is mainly studied numerically. The scaling theory is well confirmed in both cases. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd.