Driving a quantum phase transition at an arbitrary rate: Exact solution of the transverse-field Ising model

We study the crossing of the quantum phase transition in the transverse-field Ising model after modulating the magnetic field at an arbitrary rate, exploring the critical dynamics from the slow to the sudden-quench regime. We do so by analyzing the defect density, the complete kink-number distribution, and its cumulants upon completion of a linearized quench. Our analysis relies on the diagonalization of the model using the standard Jordan-Wigner and Fourier transformations, along with the exact solution of the time evolution in each mode in terms of parabolic cylinder functions. The free-fermion nature of the problem dictates that the kink-number distribution is associated with independent and distinguishable Bernoulli variables, each with a success probability ${p}_{k}$. We employ a combination of convergent and asymptotic series expansions to characterize ${p}_{k}$ without restrictions on the driving rate. When the latter is approximated by the Landau-Zener formula, the kink density is described by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, and higher-order cumulants follow a universal power-law behavior, as recently predicted theoretically and verified in the laboratory. By contrast, for moderate and sudden-driving protocols, the cumulants exhibit a nonuniversal behavior that is not monotonic on the driving rate and changes qualitatively with the cumulant order. The kink-number statistics remain sub-Poissonian for any driving rate, as revealed by an analysis of the cumulant ratios that vary nonmonotonically from the sudden- to the slow-driving regime. Due to the determination of ${p}_{k}$ for an arbitrary rate, our study provides a complete analytical understanding of kink-number statistics from the slow-driving regime to the sudden-quench limit.