Physics Letters B 771 (2017) 539–545
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Physics Letters B
www.elsevier.com/locate/physletb
Overlaps after quantum quenches in the sine-Gordon model
D.X. Horváth
a,b,∗
, G. Takács
a,b
a
MTA-BME “Momentum” Statistical Field Theory Research Group, Budafoki út 8, 1111 Budapest, Hungary
b
Department of Theoretical Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budafoki út 8, 1111 Budapest, Hungary
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received
10 April 2017
Received
in revised form 25 May 2017
Accepted
30 May 2017
Available
online 7 June 2017
Editor:
N. Lambert
We present a numerical computation of overlaps in mass quenches in sine-Gordon quantum field theory
using truncated conformal space approach (TCSA). To improve the cut-off dependence of the method,
we use a novel running coupling definition which has a general applicability in free boson TCSA. The
numerical results for the first breather overlaps are compared with the analytic continuation of a
previously proposed analytical Ansatz for the initial state in a related sinh-Gordon quench, and good
agreement is found between the numerical data and the analytical prediction in a large energy range.
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Funded by SCOAP
3
.
1. Introduction
One of the most challenging problems in contemporary physics
is the understanding of dynamical and relaxation phenomena in
closed quantum systems out of equilibrium. Motivated by both
theoretical interest and experimental relevance, recent studies led
to a series of interesting discoveries such as the experimental ob-
servation
of the lack of thermalization in integrable systems [1–4].
To explain the stationary state of integrable quantum systems, the
concept of the generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE) was proposed
[5], and recently experimentally confirmed [6]. It also turned out
that the GGE was generally incomplete when only including the
well-known local conserved charges [7,8], and its completion made
necessary the inclusion of novel quasi-local charges [9,10]. Adding
to this the unconventional, often ballistic nature of quantum trans-
port
[11,12] or the confinement effects in the spread of correla-
tions
in non-integrable systems [13] indeed, a remarkable range of
exotic behavior has emerged in recent years.
A
paradigmatic framework for non-equilibrium dynamics is
provided by quantum quenches [14], in which the initial state
(which is typically the ground state of some pre-quench Hamil-
tonian
H
0
) is subject to evolution driven by a post-quench Hamil-
tonian
H , which is obtained from H
0
by instantaneously changing
some parameters of the system. For the purpose of computing the
time evolution it is useful to know the overlaps, i.e. the ampli-
tudes
of the post-quench excitations in the initial state. Indeed, in
the case of integrable post-quench dynamics, knowledge of these
overlaps often enables the determination of steady state properties,
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail
address: esoxluciuslinne@gmail.com (D.X. Horváth).
and even the time evolution [15–20]. However, the determina-
tion
of the overlaps is generally a very difficult task. When both
the pre-quench and post-quench theories are non-interacting, the
overlaps can be determined using the Bogoliubov transformation
linking the pre- and post-quench excitation modes, but in gen-
uinely
interacting integrable models there are only few cases in
which the overlaps are explicitly known. These cases mostly in-
clude
spin chains and the Lieb–Liniger model [21–27].
Quantum
field theories are known to provide universal de-
scriptions
of statistical models and many-body systems, valid at
long distances, and therefore quantum quenches in field theories
are interesting, especially in the quest for universal characteris-
tics
and behavior under quantum quenches. In massive relativis-
tic
integrable quantum field theories there exists a number of
efficient approaches to the quench dynamics, which depend on
the assumption that the initial state |(0) can be written in a
squeezed vacuum form in terms of post-quench Zamolodchikov–
Faddeev
creation operators Z
†
a
(ϑ) for asymptotic particle states and
the post-quench vacuum |0
|(0)=N exp
dϑ
2π
K
a,b
(ϑ)Z
†
a
(−ϑ)Z
†
b
(ϑ)|0 , (1.1)
which is just the analogue of the Bogoliubov solution for free
theories. The above form of the initial state is equivalent to the
statement that the multi-particle creation amplitudes factorize into
products of independent single pair creation amplitudes. This is
obviously reminiscent of the factorization property of scattering in
integrable quantum field theories [28], which justifies calling this
class of quenches “integrable”. Such a form of the initial state en-
ables
the application of methods based on thermodynamic Bethe
Ansatz (TBA) [15–17], form factor based spectral expansions [29,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2017.05.087
0370-2693/
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Funded by
SCOAP
3
.