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Phys. Rev. A 80, 060302(R) (2009) [4 pages]

Topological order following a quantum quench

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Dimitris I. Tsomokos1,2,3, Alioscia Hamma4, Wen Zhang5, Stephan Haas5, and Rosario Fazio2,6
1School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield AL10 9AB, United Kingdom
2Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza dei Cavalieri 7, 56126 Pisa, Italy
3Department of Mathematics, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham TW20 0EX, United Kingdom
4Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline Street N, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 2Y5
5Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA
6Center for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Republic of Singapore

Received 7 September 2009; published 4 December 2009

We determine the conditions under which topological order survives a rapid quantum quench. Specifically, we consider the case where a quantum spin system is prepared in the ground state of the toric code model and, after the quench, it evolves with a Hamiltonian that does not support topological order. We provide analytical results supported by numerical evidence for a variety of quench Hamiltonians. The robustness of topological order under nonequilibrium situations is tested by studying the topological entropy and a dynamical measure, which makes use of the similarity between partial density matrices obtained from different topological sectors.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.80.060302
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.80.060302
PACS:
03.67.Lx, 03.67.−a
 
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