Dynamical quantum phase transitions in extended toric-code models

Abstract

We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of the extended toric-code model (both ordered and disordered) to probe the existence of dynamical quantum phase transitions (DQPTs). We show that in the case of the ordered toric-code model, the zeros of Loschmidt overlap (generalized partition function) occur at critical times when DQPTs occur, which is confirmed by the nonanalyticities in the dynamical counterpart of the free-energy density. Moreover, we show that DQPTs occur for any nonzero field strength if the initial state is the excited state of the toric-code model. In the disordered case, we show that it is imperative to study the behavior of the first time derivative of the dynamical free-energy density averaged over all the possible configurations to characterize the occurrence of DQPTs in the disordered toric-code model since the disorder parameter itself acts as a new artificial dimension. We also show that for the case where anyonic excitations are present in the initial state, the conditions for DQPTs to occur are the same as what happens in the absence of any excitation.