Dynamical Quantum Phase Transitions in Random Spin Chains

Abstract

Using a renormalization group approach, we solve the time evolution of random Ising spin chains with generic interactions starting from initial states of arbitrary energy. As a function of the Hamiltonian parameters, the system is tuned through a dynamical transition, similar to the ground-state critical point, at which the local spin correlations establish true long-range temporal order. In the state with a dominant transverse field, a spin that starts in an up state loses its orientation with time, while in the ``ordered'' state it never does. As in ground-state quantum phase transitions, the dynamical transition has unique signatures in the entanglement properties of the system. When the system is initialized in a product state, the entanglement entropy grows as $\mathrm{log}(t)$ in the two ``phases,'' while at the critical point it grows as ${\mathrm{log}}^{\ensuremath{\alpha}}(t)$, with $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ a universal number. This universal entanglement growth requires generic (``integrability breaking'') interactions to be added to the pure transverse field Ising model.