Nonthermal steady states after an interaction quench in the Falicov-Kimball model

TL;DR

This paper provides an exact solution for the non-equilibrium dynamics of the Falicov-Kimball model after an interaction quench, revealing non-thermal steady states characterized by collapse and revival phenomena.

Contribution

It offers the first exact non-equilibrium solution of the Falicov-Kimball model using dynamical mean-field theory and analyzes the resulting non-thermal steady states.

Findings

System relaxes to a non-thermal steady state after quenches.

Collapse and revival phenomena observed with period related to h/interaction.

Steady states described by generalized Gibbs ensembles.

Abstract

We present the exact solution of the Falicov-Kimball model after a sudden change of its interaction parameter using non-equilibrium dynamical mean-field theory. For different interaction quenches between the homogeneous metallic and insulating phases the system relaxes to a non-thermal steady state on time scales on the order of hbar/bandwidth, showing collapse and revival with an approximate period of h/interaction if the interaction is large. We discuss the reasons for this behavior and provide a statistical description of the final steady state by means of generalized Gibbs ensembles.