Dynamics of decoherence: universal scaling of the decoherence factor

TL;DR

This paper investigates the universal scaling behavior of the decoherence factor of a qubit coupled to an environmental spin system driven across a quantum critical point, revealing power-law relations governed by system dimensionality and critical exponents.

Contribution

It introduces universal scaling laws for the decoherence factor near quantum critical points, validated through numerical simulations for both integrable and non-integrable systems.

Findings

Decoherence factor exhibits universal power-law scaling with quench rate.

Scaling exponents depend only on system dimensionality and critical exponents.

Gaussian decay dominates when quenching far from the critical point in integrable systems.

Abstract

We study the time dependence of the decoherence factor (DF) of a qubit globally coupled to an environmental spin system (ESS) which is driven across the quantum critical point (QCP) by varying a parameter of its Hamiltonian in time $t$ as $1 -t/\tau$ or $-t/\tau$, to which the qubit is coupled starting at the time $t \to -\infty$; here, $\tau$ denotes the inverse quenching rate. In the limit of weak coupling, we analyze the time evolution of the DF in the vicinity of the QCP (chosen to be at $t=0$) and define three quantities, namely, the generalized fidelity susceptibility $\chi_F(\tau)$ (defined right at the QCP), and the decay constants $\alpha_1 (\tau)$ and $\alpha_2 (\tau)$ which dictate the decay of the DF at a small but finite $t$($>0$). Using a dimensional analysis argument based on the Kibble-Zurek healing length, we show that $\chi_F(\tau)$ as well as $\alpha_1 (\tau)$ and $\alpha_2(\tau)$ indeed satisfy universal power-law scaling relations with $\tau$ and the exponents are solely determined by the spatial dimensionality of the ESS and the exponents associated with its QCP. Remarkably, using the numerical t-DMRG method, these scaling relations are shown to be valid in both the situations when the ESS is integrable and non-integrable and also for both linear and non-linear variation of the parameter. Furthermore, when an integrable ESS is quenched far away from the QCP, there is a predominant Gaussian decay of the DF with a decay constant which also satisfies a universal scaling relation.