Prethermalization and persistent order in the absence of a thermal phase transition

Abstract
We numerically study the dynamics after a parameter quench in the one-dimensional transverse-field Ising model with long-range interactions (∝1/rα with distance r), for finite chains and also directly in the thermodynamic limit. In nonequilibrium, i.e., before the system settles into a thermal state, we find a long-lived regime that is characterized by a prethermal value of the magnetization, which in general differs from its thermal value. We find that the ferromagnetic phase is stabilized dynamically: as a function of the quench parameter, the prethermal magnetization shows a transition between a symmetry-broken and a symmetric phase, even for those values of α for which no finite-temperature transition occurs in equilibrium. The dynamical critical point is shifted with respect to the equilibrium one, and the shift is found to depend on α as well as on the quench parameters.
Description
CITATION: Halimeh, J. C., et al. 2017. Prethermalization and persistent order in the absence of a thermal phase transition. Physical Review B, 95(2):1-7, doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.95.024302.
The original publication is available at https://journals.aps.org/prb
Keywords
Thermal phase transitions, Thermal properties, Ising model (TFIM), Magnetization
Citation
Halimeh, J. C., et al. 2017. Prethermalization and persistent order in the absence of a thermal phase transition. Physical Review B, 95(2):1-7, doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.95.024302