Corso di laurea magistrale in Fisica

Understanding the dynamical evolution of quantum many-body systems is an important and challenging problem, with many applications for experimental setups allowing the manipulation, control and observation of coherent quantum dynamics, such as those based on trapped ions or on ultracold atoms. In particular, when a quantum system is driven out of equilibrium by a sudden perturbation (a quantum quench), many interesting phenomena occur: these include the existence of dynamical phase transitions, the mutual interplay of interactions and disorder, aging and coarsening effects, the spreading of correlations, relaxation at late times and characteristic scaling properties on short time scales.
The goal of this thesis project, which will be carried out under joint supervision with Davide Rossini from the University of Pisa, consists in studying the emergence of dynamic finite-size scaling properties after an isolated many-body system close to a quantum phase transition is perturbed by a quantum quench. In particular, the work will focus on the quantum three-state Potts model in one spatial dimension: an interesting case study and a non-trivial generalization of previous studies, that were carried out for the Ising model.