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The accurate interpretation of experiments with matter at extreme densities and pressures is a notoriously difficult challenge. In a recent work [T.~Dornheim et al., Nature Comm. (in print), arXiv:2206.12805], we have introduced a formally exact methodology that allows extracting the temperature of arbitrarily complex materials without any model assumptions or simulations. Here, we provide a more detailed introduction to this approach and analyze the impact of experimental noise on the extracted temperatures. In particular, we extensively apply our method both to synthetic scattering data and to previous experimental measurements over a broad range of temperatures and wave numbers. We expect that our approach will be of high interest to a gamut of applications, including inertial confinement fusion, laboratory astrophysics, and the compilation of highly accurate equation-of-state databases.

Real-time nonequilibrium Green functions (NEGF) have been very successful to simulate the dynamics of correlated many-particle systems far from equilibrium. However, NEGF simulations are computationally expensive since the effort scales cubically with the simulation duration. Recently we have introduced the G1--G2 scheme that allows for a dramatic reduction to time-linear scaling [Schl\"unzen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 076601 (2020); Joost et al., Phys. Rev. B 101, 245101 (2020)]. Here we tackle another problem: the rapid growth of the computational effort with the system size. In many situations where the system of interest is coupled to a bath, to electric contacts or similar macroscopic systems for which a microscopic resolution of the electronic properties is not necessary, efficient simplifications are possible. This is achieved by the introduction of an embedding selfenergy -- a concept that has been successful in standard NEGF simulations. Here, we demonstrate how the embedding concept can be introduced into the G1--G2 scheme, allowing us to drastically accelerate NEGF embedding simulations. The approach is compatible with all advanced selfenergies that can be represented by the G1--G2 scheme [as described in Joost et al., Phys. Rev. B 105, 165155 (2022)] and retains the memory-less structure of the equations and their time linear scaling. As a numerical illustration we investigate the charge transfer between a Hubbard nanocluster and an additional site which is of relevance for the neutralization of ions in matter.

Dynamical screening is a key property of charged many-particle systems. Its theoretical description is based on the $GW$ approximation that is extensively applied for ground-state and equilibrium situations but also for systems driven out of equilibrium. The main limitation of the $GW$ approximation is the neglect of strong electronic correlation effects that are important in many materials as well as in dense plasmas. Here we derive the dynamically screened ladder (DSL) approximation that selfconsistently includes, in addition to the $GW$ diagrams, also particle--particle and particle--hole $T$-matrix diagrams. The derivation is based on reduced-density-operator theory and the result is equivalent to the recently presented G1--G2 scheme [Schl\"unzen \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{124}, 076601 (2020); Joost \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. B \textbf{101}, 245101 (2020)]. We perform extensive time-dependent DSL simulations for finite Hubbard clusters and present tests against exact results that confirm excellent accuracy as well as total energy conservation of the approximation. At strong coupling and for long simulation durations, instabilities are observed. These problems are solved by enforcing contraction consistency and applying a purification approach.

In a recent Letter [Balzer \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{121}, 267602 (2018)] it was demonstrated that ions impacting a correlated graphene cluster can excite strongly nonequilibrium states. In particular, this can lead to an enhanced population of bound pairs of electrons with opposite spin -- doublons -- where the doublon number can be increased via multiple ion impacts. These predictions were made based on nonequilibrium Green functions (NEGF) simulations allowing for a time-dependent non-perturbative study of the energy loss of charged particles penetrating a strongly correlated system. Here we extend these simulations to larger clusters and longer simulation times, utilizing the recently developed G1--G2 scheme [Sch\"unzen \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{124}, 076601 (2020)] which allows for a dramatic speedup of NEGF simulations. Furthermore, we investigate the dependence of the energy and doublon number on the time interval between ion impacts and on the impact point.

The dynamics of strongly correlated fermions following an external excitation reveals extremely rich collective quantum effects. Examples are fermionic atoms in optical lattices, electrons in correlated materials, and dense quantum plasmas. Presently, the only quantum-dynamics approach that rigorously describes these processes in two and three dimensions is nonequilibrium Green functions (NEGF). However, NEGF simulations are computationally expensive due to their $T^3$ scaling with the simulation duration $T$. Recently, $T^2$ scaling was achieved with the generalized Kadanoff--Baym ansatz (GKBA) which has substantially extended the scope of NEGF simulations. Here we present a novel approach to GKBA-NEGF simulations that is of order $T$, and demonstrate its remarkable capabilities.

Strongly correlated systems of fermions have a number of exciting collective properties. Among them, the creation of a lattice that is occupied by doublons, i.e. two quantum particles with opposite spins, offers interesting electronic properties. In the past a variety of methods have been proposed to control doublon formation, both, spatially and temporally. Here, a novel mechanism is proposed and verified by exact diagonalization and nonequilibrium Green functions simulations---fermionic doublon creation by the impact of energetic ions. We report the formation of a nonequilibrium steady state with homogeneous doublon distribution. The effect should be observable in strongly correlated solids in contact with a high-pressure plasma and in fermionic atoms in optical lattices.

Time reversal symmetry is a fundamental property of many quantum mechanical systems. The relation between statistical physics and time reversal is subtle and not all statistical theories conserve this particular symmetry, most notably hydrodynamic equations and kinetic equations such as the Boltzmann equation. In this article it is shown analytically that quantum kinetic generalizations of the Boltzmann equation that are derived using the nonequilibrium Green functions formalism as well as all approximations that stem from $\Phi$-derivable selfenergies are time reversal invariant.

A combined nonequilibrium Green functions-Ehrenfest dynamics approach is developed that allows for a time-dependent study of the energy loss of a charged particle penetrating a strongly correlated system at zero and finite temperature. Numerical results are presented for finite inhomogeneous two-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard models, where the many-electron dynamics in the target are treated fully quantum mechanically and the motion of the projectile is treated classically. The simulations are based on the solution of the two-time Dyson (Keldysh-Kadanoff-Baym) equations using the second-order Born, third-order and T-matrix approximations of the self-energy. As application, we consider protons and helium nuclei with a kinetic energy between 1 and 500 keV/u passing through planar fragments of the two-dimensional honeycomb lattice and, in particular, examine the influence of electron-electron correlations on the energy exchange between projectile and electron system. We investigate the time dependence of the projectile's kinetic energy (stopping power), the electron density, the double occupancy and the photoemission spectrum. Finally, we show that, for a suitable choice of the Hubbard model parameters, the results for the stopping power are in fair agreement with ab-initio simulations for particle irradiation of single-layer graphene., Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures

The Hubbard model is a prototype for strongly correlated many-particle systems, including electrons in condensed matter and molecules, as well as for fermions or bosons in optical lattices. While the equilibrium properties of these systems have been studied in detail, the nonequilibrium dynamics following a strong non-perturbative excitation only recently came into the focus of experiments and theory. It is of particular interest how the dynamics depend on the coupling strength and on the particle number and whether there exist universal features in the time evolution. Here, we present results for the dynamics of finite Hubbard clusters based on a selfconsistent nonequilibrium Green functions (NEGF) approach invoking the generalized Kadanoff--Baym ansatz (GKBA). We discuss the conserving properties of the GKBA with Hartree--Fock propagators in detail and present a generalized form of the energy conservation criterion of Baym and Kadanoff for NEGF. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the HF-GKBA cures some artifacts of prior two-time NEGF simulations. Besides, this approach substantially speeds up the numerical calculations and thus presents the capability to study comparatively large systems and to extend the analysis to long times allowing for an accurate computation of the excitation spectrum via time propagation. Our data obtained within the second Born approximation compares favorably with exact diagonalization results (available for up to 13 particles) and are expected to have predictive capability for substantially larger systems in the weak coupling limit.