Non-adiabatic quench dynamics near anisotropic quantum critical point

Abstract

We study non-equilibrium dynamics induced by a quench of a parameter near a quantum phase transition in the Kitaev model. On the basis of an exact solution for the time-dependent Schrödinger equation, we show that the density of excitations and residual energy after a quench scale with a quench rate τ⁻¹ as τ^−3/4 and τ^−5/4 respectively, when a parameter is quenched from a gapped phase toward the quantum critical point. These unusual scaling laws originate from an anisotropic nature of the quantum critical point in the Kitaev model. Gerenalizing these results, we provide novel scaling laws for a generic anisotropic quantum critical point in d-dimensional systems.