Loschmidt echo and Momentum Distribution in a Kitaev Spin Chain

Abstract

We investigate the Loschmidt echo in a one-dimensional spin chain having Kitaev-type interaction in constant and kicked magnetic fields. The Loschmidt echo for the initial states having different magnon excitations shows long-time revivals for smaller chains and has short-time revival peaks for the longer chains. The system near the critical point shows peculiarly long-time revival peaks of the Loschmidt echo for relatively larger chains. The presence of a magnon in the initial state affects the Loschmidt echo revival peaks. The momentum distribution function exhibits maxima for a few momenta that are associated with the momentum of the magnon excitation present in the initial states. The probability maxima decay as O(1/N ) with the system size. For the Hamiltonian with kicked magnetic fields, the Loschmidt echo depends on the kick period. For a special kick period, the Loschmidt echo shows no evolution at all irrespective of the system size.