Dynamic generation of nonequilibrium superconducting states in a Kitaev chain

Abstract

A nonequilibrium state shares macroscopic properties, such as conductivity and superconductivity, with a static state when the two states exhibit an identical average value of an observable over a period. We studied the quench dynamics of a Kitaev chain on the basis of two types of order parameters associated with two channels of pairing: local pairing in real space and Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS)-like pairing in momentum space. Based on the exact solution, we found that the two order parameters were identical for the ground state, which indicated a balance between the two pairing channels and would help determine the quantum phase diagram. However, for a nonequilibrium state obtained through time evolution from an initially prepared vacuum state, the two parameters varied, but both parameters could still help determine the phase diagram. In the region of nontrivial topological phases, nonequilibrium states favored BCS-like pairing. In this paper, we present an alternative approach to dynamically generate a superconducting state from a trivial empty state and illuminate the pairing mechanism.

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