On the thermalization of a Luttinger liquid after a sequence of sudden interaction quenches

We present a comprehensive analysis of the relaxation dynamics of a Luttinger liquid subject to a sequence of sudden interaction quenches. We express the critical exponent $\beta$ governing the decay of the steady-state propagator as an explicit functional of the switching protocol. At long distances $\beta$ depends only on the initial state while at short distances it is also history dependent. Continuous protocols of arbitrary complexity can be realized with infinitely long sequences. For quenches of finite duration we prove that there exist no protocol to bring the initial non-interacting system in the ground state of the Luttinger liquid. Nevertheless memory effects are washed out at short-distances. The adiabatic theorem is then investigated with ramp-switchings of increasing duration, and several analytic results for both the propagator and the excitation energy are derived.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Conserving approximations in time-dependent quantum transport: Initial correlations and memory effects

We study time-dependent quantum transport in a correlated model system by means of time-propagation of the Kadanoff-Baym equations for the nonequilibrium many-body Green function. We consider an initially contacted equilibrium system of a correlated central region coupled to tight-binding leads. Subsequently a time-dependent bias is switched on after which we follow in detail the time-evolution of the system. Important features of the Kadanoff-Baym approach are 1) the possibility of studying the ultrafast dynamics of transients and other time-dependent regimes and 2) the inclusion of exchange and correlation effects in a conserving approximation scheme. We find that initial correlation and memory terms due to many-body interactions have a large effect on the transient currents. Furthermore the value of the steady state current is found to be strongly dependent on the approximation used to treat the electronic interactions.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Dynamical Coulomb Blockade and the Derivative Discontinuity of Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory

The role of the discontinuity of the exchange-correlation potential of density functional theory is studied in the context of electron transport and shown to be intimately related to Coulomb blockade. By following the time evolution of an interacting nanojunction attached to biased leads, we find that, instead of evolving to a steady state, the system reaches a dynamical state characterized by correlation-induced current oscillations. Our results establish a dynamical picture of Coulomb blockade manifesting itself as a periodic sequence of charging and discharging of the nanostructure.Comment: to appear in Physical Review Letter

Ultra-nonlocality in density functional theory for photo-emission spectroscopy

We derive an exact expression for the photo-current of photo-emission spectroscopy using time-dependent current density functional theory (TDCDFT). This expression is given as an integral over the Kohn-Sham spectral function renormalized by effective potentials that depend on the exchange-correlation kernel of current density functional theory. We analyze in detail the physical content of this expression by making a connection between the density-functional expression and the diagrammatic expansion of the photo-current within many-body perturbation theory. We further demonstrate that the density functional expression does not provide us with information on the kinetic energy distribution of the photo-electrons. Such information can, in principle, be obtained from TDCDFT by exactly modeling the experiment in which the photo-current is split into energy contributions by means of an external electromagnetic field outside the sample, as is done in standard detectors. We find, however, that this procedure produces very nonlocal correlations between the exchange-correlation fields in the sample and the detector.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure

Charge separation in donor-C60 complexes with real-time Green's functions: The importance of nonlocal correlations

We use the Nonequilibrium Green's Function (NEGF) method to perform real-time simulations of the ultrafast electron dynamics of photoexcited donor-C60 complexes modeled by a Pariser-Parr-Pople Hamiltonian. The NEGF results are compared to mean-field Hartree-Fock (HF) calculations to disentangle the role of correlations. Initial benchmarking against numerically highly accurate time-dependent Density Matrix Renormalization Group calculations verifies the accuracy of NEGF. We then find that charge-transfer (CT) excitons partially decay into charge separated (CS) states if dynamical non-local correlation corrections are included. This CS process occurs in ~10 fs after photoexcitation. In contrast, the probability of exciton recombination is almost 100% in HF simulations. These results are largely unaffected by nuclear vibrations; the latter become however essential whenever level misalignment hinders the CT process. The robust nature of our findings indicate that ultrafast CS driven by correlation-induced decoherence may occur in many organic nanoscale systems, but it will only be correctly predicted by theoretical treatments that include time-nonlocal correlations.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures + supplemental information (4 pages)

Time-dependent quantum transport: an exact formulation based on TDDFT

An exact theoretical framework based on Time Dependent Density Functional Theory (TDDFT) is proposed in order to deal with the time-dependent quantum transport in fully interacting systems. We use a \textit{partition-free} approach by Cini in which the whole system is in equilibrium before an external electric field is switched on. Our theory includes the interactions between the leads and between the leads and the device. It is well suited for calculating measurable transient phenomena as well as a.c. and other time-dependent responses. We show that the steady-state current results from a \textit{dephasing mechanism} provided the leads are macroscopic and the device is finite. In the d.c. case, we obtain a Landauer-like formula when the effective potential of TDDFT is uniform deep inside the electrodes.Comment: final version, 7 pages, 1 figur

Equilibrium and time-dependent Josephson current in one-dimensional superconducting junctions

We investigate the transport properties of a one-dimensional superconductor-normal metal-superconductor (S-N-S) system described within the tight-binding approximation. We compute the equilibrium dc Josephson current and the time-dependent oscillating current generated after the switch-on of a constant bias. In the first case an exact embedding procedure to calculate the Nambu-Gorkov Keldysh Green's function is employed and used to derive the continuum and bound states contributions to the dc current. A general formalism to obtain the Andreev bound states (ABS) of a normal chain connected to superconducting leads is also presented. We identify a regime in which all Josephson current is carried by the ABS and obtain an analytic formula for the current-phase relation in the limit of long chains. In the latter case the condition for perfect Andreev reflections is expressed in terms of the microscopic parameters of the model, showing a limitation of the so called wide-band-limit (WBL) approximation. When a finite bias is applied to the S-N-S junction we compute the exact time-evolution of the system by solving numerically the time-dependent Bogoliubov-deGennes equations. We provide a microscopic description of the electron dynamics not only inside the normal region but also in the superconductors, thus gaining more information with respect to WBL-based approaches. Our scheme allows us to study the ac regime as well as the transient dynamics whose characteristic time-scale is dictated by the velocity of multiple Andreev reflections

Antiferromagnetism of the 2D Hubbard Model at Half Filling: Analytic Ground State at Weak Coupling

We introduce a local formalism to deal with the Hubbard model on a N times N square lattice (for even N) in terms of eigenstates of number operators, having well defined point symmetry. For U -> 0, the low lying shells of the kinetic energy are filled in the ground state. At half filling, using the 2N-2 one-body states of the partially occupied shell S_{hf}, we build a set of (2N-2 N-1)^{2} degenerate unperturbed ground states with S_{z}=0 which are then resolved by the Hubbard interaction \hat{W}=U\sum_{r}\hat{n}_{r\ua}\hat{n}_{r\da}. In S_{hf} we study the many-body eigenstates of the kinetic energy with vanishing eigenvalue of the Hubbard repulsion (W=0 states). In the S_{z}=0 sector, this is a N times degenerate multiplet. From the singlet component one obtains the ground state of the Hubbard model for U=0^{+}, which is unique in agreement with a theorem by Lieb. The wave function demonstrates an antiferromagnetic order, a lattice step translation being equivalent to a spin flip. We show that the total momentum vanishes, while the point symmetry is s or d for even or odd N/2, respectively.Comment: 13 pages, no figure