Ballistic transport and boundary resistances in inhomogeneous quantum spin chains
Year: 2019
Authors: Biella A., Collura M., Rossini D., De Luca A., Mazza L.
Autors Affiliation: Univ Paris, Lab Mat & Phenomenes Quant, CNRS, F-75013 Paris, France; Univ Saarland, Theoret Phys, D-66123 Saarbrucken, Germany; Univ Padua, Dipartimento Fis & Astron G Galilei, I-35131 Padua, Italy; SISSA Int Sch Adv Studies, I-34136 Trieste, Italy; Univ Pisa, Dipartimento Fis, Largo Pontecorvo 3, I-56127 Pisa, Italy; Ist Nazl Fis Nucl, Largo Pontecorvo 3, I-56127 Pisa, Italy; Univ Oxford, Rudolf Peierls Ctr Theoret Phys, Oxford OX1 3NP, England; Univ Cergy Pontoise, Lab Phys Theor & Modelisat, CNRS, UMR 8089, F-95302 Cergy Pontoise, France; Univ Paris Saclay, Univ Paris Sud, CNRS, LPTMS,UMR 8626, F-91405 Orsay, France.
Abstract: Transport phenomena are central to physics, and transport in the many-body and fully-quantum regime is attracting an increasing amount of attention. It has been recently revealed that some quantum spin chains support ballistic transport of excitations at all energies. However, when joining two semi-infinite ballistic parts, such as the XX and XXZ spin-1/2 models, our understanding suddenly becomes less established. Employing a matrix-product-state ansatz of the wavefunction, we study the relaxation dynamics in this latter case. Here we show that it takes place inside a light cone, within which two qualitatively different regions coexist: an inner one with a strong tendency towards thermalization, and an outer one supporting ballistic transport. We comment on the possibility that even at infinite time the system supports stationary currents and displays a non-zero Kapitza boundary resistance. Our study paves the way to the analysis of the interplay between transport, integrability, and local defects.
Journal/Review: NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume: 10 Pages from: 4820-1 to: 4820-11
More Information: We thank A. Bastianello, J. De Nardis, M. Fagotti, R. Fazio and A. Nahum for enlightening discussions. We acknowledge support from the BMBF and EU-Quantera via QTFLAG and the Quantum Flagship via PASQuanS, the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 794750 (A .D.L.).KeyWords: Matrix Renormalization-group; Entanglement Entropy; Conductance; Relaxation; DynamicsDOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12784-4Citations: 24data from “WEB OF SCIENCE” (of Thomson Reuters) are update at: 2024-10-20References taken from IsiWeb of Knowledge: (subscribers only)