Work

Quench dynamics in higher-dimensional Holstein models: Insights from truncated Wigner approaches

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Charge-density wave phases in quantum materials stem from the complex interplay of electronic and lattice degrees of freedom. Nowadays, various time-resolved spectroscopy techniques allow to actively manipulate such phases and monitor their dynamics in real time. Modeling such nonequilibrium dynamics theoretically is a great challenge and exact methods can usually only treat a small number of atoms and finitely many phonons. We approach the melting of charge-density waves in a Holstein model after a sudden switch-on of the electronic hopping from two perspectives. We prove that in the noninteracting and in the strong-coupling limit, the CDW order parameter on high-dimensional hypercubic lattices obeys a factorization relation for long times, such that its dynamics can be reduced to the one-dimensional case. Secondly, we present numerical results from semiclassical techniques based on the truncated Wigner approximation for two spatial dimensions. A comparison with exact data obtained for a Holstein chain shows that a semiclassical treatment of both the electrons and phonons is required in order to correctly describe the phononic dynamics. This is confirmed, in addition, for a quench in the electron-phonon coupling strength.

Source: Physical review. B./Physical review. B

DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.109.174303

Authors: Eva Paprotzki, Alexander Osterkorn, Vibhu Mishra, Stefan Kehrein

Institutions: Universität Hamburg, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School, University of Göttingen

Language: English

Topic: Quantum many-body systems

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Science Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft