Dynamical crossovers in prethermal critical states

Abstract: We study the prethermal dynamics of an interacting quantum field theory with a N-component order parameter and $O(N)$ symmetry, suddenly quenched in the vicinity of a dynamical critical point. Depending on the initial conditions, the evolution of the order parameter, and of the response and correlation functions, can exhibit a temporal crossover between universal dynamical scaling regimes governed, respectively, by a quantum and a classical prethermal fixed point, as well as a crossover from a Gaussian to a non-Gaussian prethermal dynamical scaling. Together with a recent experiment, this suggests that quenches may be used in order to explore the rich variety of dynamical critical points occurring in the non-equilibrium dynamics of a quantum many-body system. We illustrate this fact by using a combination of renormalization group techniques and a non-perturbative large-$N$ limit.