Detecting superconductivity out-of-equilibrium

Recent pump-probe experiments on underdoped cuprates and similar systems suggest the existence of a transient superconducting state above Tc . This poses the question how to reliably identify the emergence of long-range order, in particular superconductivity, out-of-equilibrium. We investigate this point by studying a quantum quench in an extended Hubbard model and by computing various observables, which are used to identify (quasi-)long-range order in equilibrium. Our findings imply that, in contrast to current experimental studies, it does not suffice to study the time evolution of the optical conductivity to identify superconductivity. In turn, we suggest to utilize time-resolved ARPES experiments to probe for the formation of a condensate in the single- and two-particle channel.