TY - JOUR AU - Nghiem, H. T. M. AU - Costi, Theodoulos TI - Time-dependent numerical renormalization group method for multiple quenches: Towards exact results for the long-time limit of thermodynamic observables and spectral functions JO - Physical review / B VL - 98 IS - 15 SN - 2469-9950 CY - Woodbury, NY PB - Inst. M1 - FZJ-2018-05700 SP - 155107 PY - 2018 AB - We develop an alternative time-dependent numerical renormalization group (TDNRG) formalism for multiple quenches and implement it to study the response of a quantum impurity system to a general pulse. Within this approach, we reduce the contribution of the NRG approximation to numerical errors in the time evolution of observables by a formulation that avoids the use of the generalized overlap matrix elements in our previous multiple-quench TDNRG formalism [Nghiem et al., Phys. Rev. B 89, 075118 (2014); Phys. Rev. B 90, 035129 (2014)]. We demonstrate that the formalism yields a smaller cumulative error in the trace of the projected density matrix as a function of time and a smaller discontinuity of local observables between quenches than in our previous approach. Moreover, by increasing the switch-on time, the time between the first and last quench of the discretized pulse, the long-time limit of observables systematically converges to its expected value in the final state, i.e., the more adiabatic the switching, the more accurately is the long-time limit recovered. The present formalism can be straightforwardly extended to infinite switch-on times. We show that this yields highly accurate results for the long-time limit of both thermodynamic observables and spectral functions, and overcomes the significant errors within the single quench formalism [Anders et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 196801 (2005); Nghiem et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 156601 (2017)]. This improvement provides a first step towards an accurate description of nonequilibrium steady states of quantum impurity systems, e.g., within the scattering states NRG approach [Anders, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 066804 (2008)]. LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 UR - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000446296600003 DO - DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.98.155107 UR - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/852913 ER -