"Light-cone" dynamics after quantum quenches in spin chains

Signal propagation in the non equilibirum evolution after quantum quenches has recently attracted much experimental and theoretical interest. A key question arising in this context is what principles, and which of the properties of the quench, determine the characteristic propagation velocity. Here we investigate such issues for a class of quench protocols in one of the central paradigms of interacting many-particle quantum systems, the spin-1/2 Heisenberg XXZ chain. We consider quenches from a variety of initial thermal density matrices to the same final Hamiltonian using matrix product state methods. The spreading velocities are observed to vary substantially with the initial density matrix. However, we achieve a striking data collapse when the spreading velocity is considered to be a function of the excess energy. Using the fact that the XXZ chain is integrable, we present an explanation of the observed velocities in terms of "excitations" in an appropriately defined generalized Gibbs ensemble.Comment: 4+pages, 5 figures, supplementary materia

Finite-time quantum quenches in the XXZ Heisenberg chain

We study the time evolution of the two-point correlation functions in the XXZ Heisenberg chain after a finite-time quantum quench in the anisotropy. We compare results from numerical simulations to ones obtained in the Luttinger model and find good agreement. We analyse the spreading of the correlations and the associated light-cone features. We observe a delay in the appearance of the light cone as compared to the sudden-quench setup, and link this delay to the properties of the quench protocol

Higher-Order Hydrodynamics in 1D: a Promising Direction and a Null Result

We derive a Moyal dynamical equation that describes exact time evolution in generic (inhomogeneous) noninteracting spin-chain models. Assuming quasistationarity, we develop a hydrodynamic theory. The question at hand is whether some large-time corrections are captured by higher-order hydrodynamics. We consider in particular the dynamics after that two chains, prepared in different conditions, are joined together. In these situations a light cone, separating regions with macroscopically different properties, emerges from the junction. In free fermionic systems some observables close to the light cone follow a universal behavior, known as Tracy-Widom scaling. Universality means weak dependence on the system's details, so this is the perfect setting where hydrodynamics could emerge. For the transverse-field Ising chain and the XX model, we show that hydrodynamics captures the scaling behavior close to the light cone. On the other hand, our numerical analysis suggests that hydrodynamics fails in more general models, whenever a condition is not satisfied.Comment: 7+2 pages, 1+2 figure

Correlation spreading and properties of the quantum state in quench dynamics

The light cone spreading of correlations following a quantum quench is obtained from first principles. Fully taking into account quantum and interaction effects, the derivation shows how light cone dynamics does not require peculiar properties of the postquench state

A Nonequilibrium quantum phase transition in strongly coupled spin chains

We study spin transport in a boundary driven XXZ spin chain. Driving at the chain boundaries is modeled by two additional spin chains prepared in oppositely polarized states. Emergent behavior, both in the transient dynamics and in the long-time quasi-steady state, is demonstrated. Time-dependent matrix-product-state simulations of the system-bath state show ballistic spin transport below the Heisenberg isotropic point. Indications of exponentially vanishing transport are found above the Heisenberg point for low energy initial states while the current decays asymptotically as a power law for high energy states. Precisely at the critical point, non-ballistic transport is observed. Finally, it is found that the sensitivity of the quasi-stationary state on the initial state of the chain is a good witness of the different transport phases

Time-dependent Correlation Functions in Open Quadratic Fermionic Systems

We formulate and discuss explicit computation of dynamic correlation functions in open quadradic fermionic systems which are driven and dissipated by the Lindblad jump processes that are linear in canonical fermionic operators. Dynamic correlators are interpreted in terms of local quantum quench where the pre-quench state is the non-equilibrium steady state, i.e. a fixed point of the Liouvillian. As an example we study the XY spin 1/2 chain and the Kitaev Majorana chains with boundary Lindblad driving, whose dynamics exhibits asymmetric (skewed) light cone behaviour. We also numerically treat the two dimensional XY model and the XY spin chain with additional Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions. The latter exhibits a new non-equilibrium phase transition which can be understood in terms of bifurcations of the quasi-particle dispersion relation. Finally, considering in some detail the periodic Kitaev chain (fermionic ring) with dissipation at a single (arbitrary) site, we present analytical expressions for the first order corrections (in the strength of dissipation) to the spectrum and the non-equilibrium steady state (NESS) correlation functions.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figure