Kibble–Zurek mechanism in the Ising Field Theory

Abstract

The Kibble--Zurek mechanism captures universality when a system is driven through a continuous phase transition. Here we study the dynamical aspect of quantum phase transitions in the Ising Field Theory where the quantum critical point can be crossed in different directions in the two-dimensional coupling space leading to different scaling laws. Using the Truncated Conformal Space Approach, we investigate the microscopic details of the Kibble--Zurek mechanism in terms of instantaneous eigenstates in a genuinely interacting field theory. For different protocols, we demonstrate dynamical scaling in the non-adiabatic time window and provide analytic and numerical evidence for specific scaling properties of various quantities. In particular, we argue that the higher cumulants of the excess heat exhibit universal scaling in generic interacting models for a slow enough ramp.