Changing the order of a dynamical phase transition through fluctuations in a quantum p-spin model

Abstract: We study the non-equilibrium phase diagram of a fully-connected Ising $p$-spin model, for generic $p>2$, and investigate its robustness with respect to the inclusion of spin-wave fluctuations, resulting from a ferromagnetic, short-range spin interaction. In particular, we investigate the dynamics of the mean-field model after a quantum quench: we observe a new dynamical phase transition which is either first or second order depending on the even or odd parity of $p$, in stark contrast with its thermal counterpart which is first order for all $p$. The dynamical phase diagram is qualitatively modified by the fluctuations introduced by a short-range interaction which drive the system always towards various paramagnetic phases determined by the strength of time dependent fluctuations of the magnetization.