We use nonequilibrium dynamical mean field theory and a real-time diagrammatic impurity solver to study the heating associated with time-dependent changes of the interaction in a fermionic Hubbard model. Optimal ramp shapes $U(t)$ which minimize the excitation energy are determined for a noninteracting initial state and an infinitesimal change of the interaction strength. For ramp times of a few inverse hoppings, these optimal $U(t)$ are strongly oscillating with a frequency determined by the bandwidth. We show that the scaled versions of the optimized ramps yield substantially lower temperatures than linear ramps even for final interaction values comparable to the bandwidth. The relaxation of the system after the ramp and its dependence on the ramp shape are also addressed.

• Received 14 October 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.83.155122