Berlin 2018 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 6: Dynamics in many-body systems: interference, equilibration and localization I (joint session DY/TT)

DY 6.8: Talk

Monday, March 12, 2018, 12:00–12:15, EB 107

Dynamical quantum phase transitions in the particle-antiparticle production of a lattice gauge theory — •Yi-Ping Huang and Markus Heyl — Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzer Straße 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany

Particle-antiparticle production in the presence of a static classical electric field, known as the Schwinger mechanism, represents a central physical phenomenon in gauge theories. How the particle production is affected in the quantum limit, where the backaction onto the electric field becomes essential, remains a major challenge. In this work, we study particle-antiparticle production in the quantum quench dynamics after a strong coupling of the bare particles to dynamical gauge field in a quantum link model. We find that for a strong coupling the system experiences dynamical quantum phase transitions (DQPTs) where the vacuum persistence probability (Loschmidt echo) develops non-analytic behavior at critical times. As opposed to the Schwinger mechanism, where matter fields are suddenly coupled to a classical electric field, we observe that the dynamics of the vacuum persistence probability and therefore the DQPTs cannot be understood using the classical picture of particle production. Instead, a quantum dynamical pattern emerges from the strongly coupled matter fields and dynamical gauge fields. We discuss how these findings can be experimentally observed in quantum simulators such as trapped ions.