Dynamical quantum phase transitions and broken-symmetry edges in the many-body eigenvalue spectrum

Abstract

Many-body models undergoing a quantum phase transition to a broken-symmetry phase that survives up to a critical temperature must possess, in the ordered phase, symmetric as well as nonsymmetric eigenstates. We predict, and explicitly show in the fully connected Ising model in a transverse field, that these two classes of eigenstates do not overlap in energy, and therefore that an energy edge exists separating low-energy symmetry-breaking eigenstates from high-energy symmetry-invariant ones. This energy is actually responsible, as we show, for the dynamical phase transition displayed by this model under a sudden large increase of the transverse field. A second situation we consider is the opposite, where the symmetry-breaking eigenstates are those in the high-energy sector of the spectrum, whereas the low-energy eigenstates are symmetric. In that case too a special energy must exist marking the boundary and leading to unexpected out-of-equilibrium dynamical behavior. An example is the fermonic repulsive Hubbard model Hamiltonian $\mathcal{H}$. Exploiting the trivial fact that the high-energy spectrum of $\mathcal{H}$ is also the low-energy one of $\ensuremath{-}\mathcal{H}$, we conclude that the high-energy eigenstates of the Hubbard model are superfluid. Simulating in a time-dependent Gutzwiller approximation the time evolution of a high-energy BCS-like trial wave function, we show that a small superconducting order parameter will actually grow in spite of the repulsive nature of the interaction.