Environment-induced prerelaxation in the Mott-Hubbard model

Via the hierarchy of correlations, we study the strongly interacting Fermi-Hubbard model in the Mott insulator state and couple it to a Markovian environment that constantly monitors the particle numbers (n) over cap (up arrow)(mu) and (n) over cap (down arrow)(mu) for each lattice site mu. As expected, the environment induces an imaginary part gamma (i.e., the decay rate) of the quasiparticle frequencies omega(k) -> omega(k) - i gamma, and it tends to diminish the correlations between lattice sites. Surprisingly, the environment also steers the state of the system on intermediate timescales O(1/gamma) to a prerelaxed state very similar to the prethermalized state after a quantum quench (i.e., suddenly switching on the hopping rate J). Full relaxation or thermalization occurs via local on-site heating and takes much longer.