Topological classification of dynamical phase transitions (1409.7019v1)

Abstract: Dynamical phase transitions (DPT) are characterized by nonanalytical time evolution of the dynamical free energy. For general 2-band systems in one and two dimensions (eg. SSH model, Kitaev-chain, Haldane model, p+ip superconductor, etc.), we show that the time evolution of the dynamical free energy is crucially affected by the ground state topology of both the initial and final Hamiltonians, implying DPTs when the topology is changed under the quench. Similarly to edge states in topological insulators, DPTs can be classified as being topologically protected or not. In 1D systems the number of topologically protected non-equilibrium time scales are determined by the difference between the initial and final winding numbers, while in 2D no such relation exists for the Chern numbers. The singularities of dynamical free energy in the 2D case are qualitatively different from those of the 1D case, the cusps appear only in the first time derivative.