{
  "id": "1601.04368",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2016-01-17T23:42:43.000Z",
  "updated": "2016-01-17T23:42:43.000Z",
  "title": "Critical scaling in quantum thermodynamics",
  "authors": [
    "Abolfazl Bayat",
    "Tony J. G. Apollaro",
    "Simone Paganelli",
    "Gabriele De Chiara",
    "Henrik Johannesson",
    "Sougato Bose",
    "Pasquale Sodano"
  ],
  "comment": "7 pages, 4 figures",
  "categories": [
    "cond-mat.stat-mech",
    "cond-mat.str-el",
    "quant-ph"
  ],
  "abstract": "The emerging field of quantum thermodynamics is contributing important results and insights into archetypal many-body problems, including quantum phase transitions. Still, the question whether out-of-equilibrium quantities, such as fluctuations of work, exhibit critical scaling after a sudden quench in a closed system has remained elusive. Here, we take a novel approach to the problem by studying a quench across an impurity quantum critical point. By performing density matrix renormalization group computations on the two-impurity Kondo model, we are able to establish that the irreversible work produced in a quench exhibits finite-size scaling at quantum criticality. This scaling faithfully predicts the equilibrium critical exponents for the crossover length and the order parameter of the model, and, moreover, implies a new exponent for the rescaled irreversible work. By connecting the irreversible work to the two-impurity spin correlation function, our findings can be tested experimentally.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2016-01-17T23:42:43.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "quantum thermodynamics",
      "critical scaling",
      "density matrix renormalization group computations",
      "irreversible work",
      "performing density matrix renormalization group"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 7,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable",
      "adsabs": "2016arXiv160104368B"
    }
  }
}