Total energy dynamics and asymptotics of the momentum distribution following an interaction quench in a two-component Fermi gas

Abstract

The absence of a characteristic momentum scale in the pseudopotential description of atomic interactions in ultracold (two-component Fermi) gases is known to lead to divergences in perturbation theory. Here we show that they also plague the calculation of the dynamics of the total energy following a quantum quench. A procedure to remove the divergences is devised, which provides finite answers for the time evolution of the total energy after a quench in which the interaction strength is ramped up according to an arbitrary protocol. An important result of this analysis is the time evolution of the asymptotic tail of the momentum distribution (related to Tan's contact) to leading order in the scattering length. Explicit expressions for the dynamics of the total energy and the contact for a linear interaction ramp are obtained, as a function of the interaction ramp time in the crossover from the sudden quench to the adiabatic limit. In the sudden quench limit, the contact, following a rapid oscillation, reaches a stationary value which is different from the equilibrium one. In the adiabatic limit, the contact grows quadratically in time and later saturates to the equilibrium value for the final value of the scattering length.