title: Critical quench dynamics in confined systems.
abstract: We analyze the coherent quantum evolution of a many-particle system after slowly sweeping a power-law confining potential. The amplitude of the confining potential is varied in time along a power-law ramp such that the many-particle system finally reaches or crosses a critical point. Under this protocol we derive general scaling laws for the density of excitations created during the nonadiabatic sweep of the confining potential. It is found that the mean excitation density follows an algebraic law as a function of the sweeping rate with an exponent that depends on the space-time properties of the potential. We confirm our scaling laws by first order adiabatic calculation and exact results on the Ising quantum chain with a varying transverse field.
authors.affiliation: Institut Jean Lamour, Department P2M, Groupe de Physique Statistique, Nancy-Université CNRS, B. P. 70239, F-54506 Vandoeuvre les Nancy Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Collura
authors.forename: Dragi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Karevski