We study the Loschmidt echo (LE) in a central spin model in which a central spin is globally coupled to an environment ($E$) which is subjected to a small and sudden quench at $t=0$, so that its state at $t=0^{+}$ remains the same as the ground state of the initial environmental Hamiltonian before the quench; this leads to a nonequilibrium situation. This state now evolves with two Hamiltonians, the final Hamiltonian following the quench and its modified version which incorporates an additional term arising due to the coupling of the central spin to the environment. Using a generic short-time scaling of the decay rate, we establish that in the early-time limit, the rate of decay of the LE close to the quantum critical point (QCP) of $E$ is independent of the quenching. We also study the temporal evolution of the LE and establish the presence of a crossover to a situation where the quenching becomes irrelevant. In the limit of large quench amplitude the nonequilibrium initial condition is found to result in a drastic increase in decoherence at large times, even far away from a QCP. These generic results are verified analytically as well as numerically, choosing $E$ to be a transverse Ising chain where the transverse field is suddenly quenched.

• Received 11 April 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.020301