Nonequilibrium characterization of equilibrium correlated quantum phases

Abstract

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-Lifshitz-Gilbert-Bloch equation. We find that the correlated quench dynamics exhibit robust universal behaviors on the so-called band-inversion surfaces (BISs), from which the nontrivial topology and magnetic order can be extracted. In particular, the topology of the post-quench regime can be characterized by an emergent dynamical topological pattern of quench dynamics on BISs, which is robust against dephasing and heating induced by interactions; the pre-quench symmetry-breaking orders is read out from a universal scaling behavior of the quench dynamics emerging on the BIS, which is valid beyond the mean-field regime. This work opens a way to characterize both the topology and symmetry-breaking orders by correlated quench dynamics.