Thermalization in 2D critical quench and UV/IR mixing

Abstract

We consider quantum quenches in models of free scalars and fermions with a generic time-dependent mass $m(t)$ that goes from $m_0$ to zero. We prove that, as anticipated in MSS \cite{Mandal:2015jla}, the post-quench dynamics can be described in terms of a state of the generalized Calabrese-Cardy form $|\psi \rangle$= $\exp[-\kappa_2 H -\sum_{n>2}^\infty \kappa_n W_n]| \hbox{Bd} \rangle$. The $W_n$ ($n=2,3,...$, $W_2=H$) here represent the conserved $W_\infty$ charges and $| \hbox{Bd} \rangle$ represents a conformal boundary state. Our result holds irrespective of whether the pre-quench state is a ground state or a squeezed state, and is proved without recourse to perturbation expansion in the $\kappa_n$'s as in MSS. We compute exact time-dependent correlators for some specific quench protocols $m(t)$. The correlators explicitly show thermalization to a generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE), with inverse temperature $\beta= 4\kappa_2$, and chemical potentials $\mu_n=4\kappa_n$. In case the pre-quench state is a ground state, it is possible to retrieve the exact quench protocol $m(t)$ from the final GGE, by an application of inverse scattering techniques. Another notable result, which we interpret as a UV/IR mixing, is that the long distance and long time (IR) behaviour of some correlators depends crucially on all $\kappa_n$'s, although they are highly irrelevant couplings in the usual RG parlance. This indicates subtleties in RG arguments when applied to non-equilibrium dynamics.