Non-equilibrium thermal transport and vacuum expansion in the Hubbard model

One of the most straightforward ways to study thermal properties beyond linear response is to monitor the relaxation of an arbitrarily large left-right temperature gradient TL−TR. In one-dimensional systems which support ballistic thermal transport, the local energy currents ⟨j(t)⟩ acquire a nonzero value at long times, and it was recently investigated whether or not this steady state fulfills a simple additive relation ⟨j(t→∞)⟩=f(TL)−f(TR) in integrable models. In this paper, we probe the nonequilibrium dynamics of the Hubbard chain using density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) numerics. We show that the above form provides an effective description of thermal transport in this model; violations are below the finite-time accuracy of the DMRG. As a second setup, we study how an initially equilibrated system radiates into different nonthermal states (such as the vacuum)

Hubbard-to-Heisenberg crossover (and efficient computation) of Drude weights at low temperatures

We illustrate how finite-temperature charge and thermal Drude weights of one- dimensional systems can be obtained from the relaxation of initial states featuring global (left–right) gradients in the chemical potential or temperature. The approach is tested for spinless interacting fermions as well as for the Fermi-Hubbard model, and the behavior in the vicinity of special points (such as half filling or isotropic chains) is discussed.We present technical details on how to implement the calculation in practice using the density matrix renormalization group and show that the non-equilibrium dynamics is often less demanding to simulate numerically and features simpler finite-time transients than the corresponding linear response current correlators; thus, new parameter regimes can become accessible. As an application, we determine the thermal Drude weight of the Hubbard model for temperatures T which are an order of magnitude smaller than those reached in the equilibrium approach. This allows us to demonstrate that at low T and half filling, thermal transport is successively governed by spin excitations and described quantitatively by the Bethe ansatz Drude weight of the Heisenberg chain

Expansion potentials for exact far-from-equilibrium spreading of particles and energy

The rates at which energy and particle densities move to equalize arbitrarily large temperature and chemical potential differences in an isolated quantum system have an emergent thermodynamical description whenever energy or particle current commutes with the Hamiltonian. Concrete examples include the energy current in the 1D spinless fermion model with nearest-neighbor interactions (XXZ spin chain), energy current in Lorentz-invariant theories or particle current in interacting Bose gases in arbitrary dimension. Even far from equilibrium, these rates are controlled by state functions, which we call ``expansion potentials'', expressed as integrals of equilibrium Drude weights. This relation between nonequilibrium quantities and linear response implies non-equilibrium Maxwell relations for the Drude weights. We verify our results via DMRG calculations for the XXZ chain.Comment: v2: to appear in PR

Second order functional renormalization group approach to one-dimensional systems in real and momentum space

We devise a functional renormalization group treatment for a chain of interacting spinless fermions which is correct up to second order in interaction strength. We treat both inhomogeneous systems in real space as well as the translationally invariant case in a k-space formalism. The strengths and shortcomings of the different schemes as well as technical details of their implementation are discussed. We use the method to study two proof-of-principle problems in the realm of Luttinger liquid physics, namely, reflection at interfaces and power laws in the occupation number as a function of crystal momentum

Functional renormalization-group approach

We present a functional renormalization-group approach to interacting topological Green's function invariants with a focus on the nature of transitions. The method is applied to chiral symmetric fermion chains in the Mott limit that can be driven into a Haldane phase. We explicitly show that the transition to this phase is accompanied by a zero of the fermion Green's function. Our results for the phase boundary are quantitatively benchmarked against density matrix renormalization-group data

Solvable Hydrodynamics of Quantum Integrable Systems

The conventional theory of hydrodynamics describes the evolution in time of chaotic many-particle systems from local to global equilibrium. In a quantum integrable system, local equilibrium is characterized by a local generalized Gibbs ensemble or equivalently a local distribution of pseudo-momenta. We study time evolution from local equilibria in such models by solving a certain kinetic equation, the "Bethe-Boltzmann" equation satisfied by the local pseudo-momentum density. Explicit comparison with density matrix renormalization group time evolution of a thermal expansion in the XXZ model shows that hydrodynamical predictions from smooth initial conditions can be remarkably accurate, even for small system sizes. Solutions are also obtained in the Lieb-Liniger model for free expansion into vacuum and collisions between clouds of particles, which model experiments on ultracold one-dimensional Bose gases.Comment: 6+5 pages, published versio