We show that the correlation and entanglement dynamics of spin systems can be
understood in terms of propagation of spin waves. This gives a simple, physical
explanation of the behaviour seen in a number of recent works, in which a
localised, low-energy excitation is created and allowed to evolve. But it also
extends to the scenario of translationally invariant systems in states far from
equilibrium, which require less local control to prepare. Spin-wave evolution
is completely determined by the system's dispersion relation, and the latter
typically depends on a small number of external, physical parameters.
Therefore, this new insight into correlation dynamics opens up the possibility
not only of predicting but also of controlling the propagation velocity and
dispersion rate, by manipulating these parameters. We demonstrate this
analytically in a simple, example system.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, REVTeX4 forma