Published January 2010 | Version v1
Journal article

Scaling of entanglement entropy in a quantum phase transition in the transverse Ising model induced by a quench

  • 1. Physics and Applied Mathematics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata 700 108 (India)
  • 2. Jyotinagar Bidyasree Niketan H. S. School, 41 Jyotinagar, Kolkata 700 108 (India)

Description

It is known that at the critical point of a zero-temperature quantum phase transition in a one-dimensional spin system the entanglement entropy of a block of L spins with the rest of the system scales logarithmically with L with a prefactor determined by the central charge of the relevant conformal field theory. When we introduce critical slowing down incorporating the Kibble-Zurek mechanism of defect formation induced by a quench, the implicit nonadiabatic transition disturbs the scaling behavior. We have shown that in this case the entanglement entropy also obeys a scaling law such that it increases logarithmically with L but the prefactor depends on the quench time. This puts a constraint on the block size L so that we cannot arbitrarily choose it. Thus, the entanglement entropy obeys the scaling law only in a restrictive sense due to the formation of defects.

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review. A
Journal Volume
81
Journal Issue
1
Journal Page Range
p. 012311-012311.5
ISSN
1050-2947
CODEN
PLRAAN

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2010 The American Physical Society