Dynamical critical scaling of long-range interacting quantum magnets

TL;DR

This paper investigates the scaling behavior of residual heat during slow magnetic field quenches in the fully connected Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model, revealing unique dynamics compared to short-range systems and identifying conditions for universal scaling.

Contribution

It analytically derives the quantum residual heat scaling in the LMG model and clarifies the conditions under which universal Kibble-Zurek scaling applies in long-range interacting systems.

Findings

Scaling laws are only found for ramps ending at the critical point.

Symmetric ramps lead to defect reabsorption and a crossover in excitation number.

Results are applicable to experimental platforms like quantum gases and trapped ions.

Abstract

Slow variations (quenches) of the magnetic field across the paramagnetic-ferromagnetic phase transition of spin systems produce heat. In systems with short-range interactions the heat exhibits universal power-law scaling as a function of the quench rate, known as Kibble-Zurek scaling. In this work we analyze slow quenches of the magnetic field in the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model, which describes fully connected quantum spins. We analytically determine the quantum contribution to the residual heat as a function of the quench rate $\delta$ by means of a Holstein-Primakoff expansion about the mean-field value. Unlike in the case of short-range interactions, scaling laws in the LMG model are only found for a ramp ending at the critical point. If instead the ramp is symmetric, as in the typical Kibble-Zurek scenario, after crossing the critical point the system tends to reabsorb the defects formed during the first part of the ramp: the number of excitations exhibits a crossover behavior as a function of $\delta$ and tends to a constant in the thermodynamic limit. Previous, and seemingly contradictory, theoretical studies are identified as specific limits of this dynamics. Our results can be tested on several experimental platforms, including quantum gases and trapped ions.