Interaction-induced Landau-Zener transitions

Department of Physics, Stockholm University, AlbaNova University Center - SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden and Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln - D-50937 Köln, Germany

Received: 2 June 2014
Accepted: 18 July 2014

Abstract

By considering a quantum-critical Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model we analyze a new type of Landau-Zener transitions where the population transfer is mediated by interaction rather than from a direct diabatic coupling. For this scenario, at a mean-field level the dynamics is greatly influenced by quantum interferences. In particular, regardless of how slow the Landau-Zener sweep is, for certain parameters almost no population transfer occurs, which is in stark contrast to the regular Landau-Zener model. For moderate system sizes, this counterintuitive mean-field behaviour is not duplicated in the quantum case. This can be attributed to quantum fluctuations and to the fact that multi-level Landau-Zener-Stückelberg interferences have a “dephasing” effect on the above-mentioned phenomenon. We also find a discrepancy between the quantum and mean-field models in terms of how the transfer probabilities scale with the sweep velocity.