Dynamics of first-order quantum phase transitions in extended Bose-Hubbard model: From density wave to superfluid and vice-versa

Abstract: In this paper, we study the nonequilibrium dynamics of the Bose-Hubbard model with the nearest-neighbor repulsion by using time-dependent Gutzwiller (GW) methods. In particular, we vary the hopping parameters in the Hamiltonian as a function of time, and investigate the dynamics of the system from the density wave (DW) to the superfluid (SF) crossing a first-order phase transition and vice-versa. From the DW to SF, we find scaling laws for the correlation length and vortex density with respect to the quench time. This is a reminiscence of the Kibble-Zurek scaling for continuous phase transitions and contradicts the common expectation. We give a possible explanation for this observation. On the other hand from the SF to DW, the system evolution depends on the initial SF state. When the initial state is the ground-state obtained by the static GW methods, a coexisting state of the SF and DW domains forms after passing through the critical point. Coherence of the SF order parameter is lost as the system evolves. This is a phenomenon similar to the glass transition in classical systems. When the state starts from the SF with small local phase fluctuations, the system obtains a large-size DW-domain structure with thin domain walls.