Few strongly interacting fermions of different mass driven in the vicinity of a critical point

It was recently argued that one-dimensional systems of several strongly interacting fermions of different mass undergo critical transitions between different spatial orderings when the external confinement adiabatically changes its shape. In this work, we explore their dynamical properties when finite-time drivings are considered. By detailed analysis of many-body spectra, we show that the dynamics is typically guided only by the lowest eigenstates and may be well understood in the language of the generalized Landau-Zener mechanism. In this way, we can precisely capture the dynamical response of the system to the external driving. As a consequence, we show that by appropriate tailoring of the parameters of the driving, one can target the desired many-body state in a noninfinite time. Our theoretical predictions can be straightforwardly utilized in upcoming state-of-the-art experiments with ultracold atoms.

Automated summary

It has been argued that one-dimensional systems of strongly interacting fermions of different mass undergo critical transitions between spatial orderings when external confinement adiabatically changes shape. When considering finite-time drivings, the dynamics are typically guided by the lowest eigenstates and can be understood through the generalized Landau-Zener mechanism. By adjusting driving parameters, it is possible to target the desired many-body state in a noninfinite time.