Three `species' of Schrodinger cat states in an infinite-range spin model

ORAL

Abstract

We explore a transverse-field Ising model that exhibits both spontaneous symmetry-breaking and eigenstate thermalization. Within its ferromagnetic phase, the exact eigenstates of the Hamiltonian of any large but finite-sized system are all Schrodinger cat states: coherent linear superpositions of states with `up' and `down' spontaneous magnetization. This model exhibits two dynamical phase transitions {\it within} the ferromagnetic phase between regimes where the motion of the order parameter between `up' and `down' is via quantum tunneling or not, and is always overdamped or not.

*Supported in part by the NSF under DMR0819860, and by the DARPA OLE program.

Authors

  • Bo Zhao

    • Princeton University
  • Cotty Kerridge

    • Princeton University
  • David Huse

    • Princeton University
    • Physics Department, Princeton University