Dynamical Quantum Phase Transitions in Spin Chains with Long-Range Interactions: Merging different concepts of non-equilibrium criticality

Abstract: We theoretically study the dynamics of a transverse-field Ising chain with power-law decaying interactions characterized by an exponent $\alpha$, which can be experimentally realized in ion traps. We focus on two classes of emergent dynamical critical phenomena following a quantum quench from a ferromagnetic initial state: The first one manifests in the time averaged order parameter, which vanishes at a critical transverse field. We argue that such a transition occurs only for long-range interactions $\alpha \leq 2$ . The second class corresponds to the emergence of time-periodic singularities in the return probability to the ground state manifold (a.k.a. Loschmidt echo) which is obtained for all values of $\alpha$ and agrees with the order parameter transition for $\alpha\leq 2$. We characterize how the two classes of nonequilibrium criticality correspond to each other and give a physical interpretation based on the symmetry of the time-evolved quantum states.