Work statistics and symmetry breaking in an excited-state quantum phase transition

Abstract

We examine how the presence of an excited-state quantum phase transition manifests in the dynamics of a many-body system subject to a sudden quench. Focusing on the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model initialized in the ground state of the ferromagnetic phase, we demonstrate that the work probability distribution displays non-Gaussian behavior for quenches in the vicinity of the excited-state critical point. Furthermore, we show that the entropy of the diagonal ensemble is highly susceptible to critical regions, making it a robust and practical indicator of the associated spectral characteristics. We assess the role that symmetry breaking has on the ensuing dynamics, highlighting that its effect is only present for quenches beyond the critical point. Finally, we show that similar features persist when the system is initialized in an excited state and briefly explore the behavior for initial states in the paramagnetic phase.