Dephasing with strings attached

Abstract

Motivated by the existence of mobile low-energy excitations like domain walls in one dimension or gauge-charged fractionalized particles in higher dimensions, we compare quantum dynamics in the presence of weak Markovian dephasing for a particle hopping on a chain and for an Ising domain wall whose motion leaves behind a string of flipped spins. Exact solutions show that the two models have near identical transport responses in the bulk. On the other hand, in finite-length chains, the broadening of discrete spectral lines is much more noticeable in the case of a domain wall. These results may be of relevance to a broad class of systems including quasi-1D antiferromagnets, polymer chains, and even retinal systems