Universal Scaling in Fast Quantum Quenches in Conformal Field Theories
Bibliographic record
Abstract
We study the time evolution of a conformal field theory deformed by a relevant operator under a smooth but fast quantum quench which brings it to the conformal point. We argue that when the quench time scale δt is small compared to the scale set by the relevant coupling, the expectation value of the quenched operator scales universally as δλ/δt(2Δ-d), where δλ is the quench amplitude. This growth is further enhanced by a logarithmic factor in even dimensions. We present explicit results for free scalar and fermionic field theories, supported by an analytic understanding of the leading contribution for fast quenches. Our results suggest that this scaling result, first found in holography, is in fact quite general. Our considerations also show that this limit of fast smooth quenches is quite different from an instantaneous quench from one time-independent Hamiltonian to another, where the state at the time of the quench serves as an initial condition for subsequent evolution with the final Hamiltonian.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".