Lee-Yang zeros and critical times in decoherence of a probe spin coupled to a bath

Phase transitions are not usually seen in the time domain. Here, we report on the finding of critical times at which a physical observable, in the thermodynamic limit, becomes nonanalytic as a function of time. We find that the coherence of a probe spin coupled to a many-body system vanishes at time...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2012-10, Vol.109 (18), p.185701-185701, Article 185701
Main Authors: Wei, Bo-Bo, Liu, Ren-Bao
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Phase transitions are not usually seen in the time domain. Here, we report on the finding of critical times at which a physical observable, in the thermodynamic limit, becomes nonanalytic as a function of time. We find that the coherence of a probe spin coupled to a many-body system vanishes at times in one-to-one correspondence to the Lee-Yang zeros of the partition function of the many-body system. In the thermodynamic limit, the Lee-Yang zeros form a continuum cut in the complex plane of fugacity and the probe spin coherence presents sudden death and birth at the critical times corresponding to the Yang-Lee singularities. These results provide new experimental possibilities in many-body physics.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.109.185701