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arXiv:1702.02930 · Physical Review Letters

Microscopic Origin of Ideal Conductivity in Integrable Quantum Models

Enej Ilievski, Jacopo De Nardis

Published Jul 11, 2017• 222 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Nonergodic dynamical systems display anomalous transport properties. Prominent examples are integrable quantum systems, whose exceptional properties are diverging dc conductivities. In this Letter, we explain the microscopic origin of ideal conductivity by resorting to the thermodynamic particle content of a system. Using group-theoretic arguments we rigorously resolve the long-standing controversy regarding the nature of spin and charge Drude weights in the absence of chemical potentials. In addition, by employing a hydrodynamic description, we devise an efficient computational method to calculate exact Drude weights from the stationary currents generated in an inhomogeneous quench from bipartitioned initial states. We exemplify the method on the anisotropic Heisenberg model at finite temperatures for the entire range of anisotropies, accessing regimes that are out of reach with other approaches. Quite remarkably, spin Drude weight and asymptotic spin current rates reveal a completely discontinuous (fractal) dependence on the anisotropy parameter.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.119.020602

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Nonergodic dynamical systems display anomalous transport properties. Prominent examples are integrable quantum systems, whose exceptional properties are diverging dc conductivities. In this Letter, we explain the microscopic origin of ideal conductivity by resorting to the thermodynamic particle content of a system. Using group-theoretic arguments we rigorously resolve the long-standing controversy regarding the nature of spin and charge Drude weights in the absence of chemical potentials. In addition, by employing a hydrodynamic description, we devise an efficient computational method to calculate exact Drude weights from the stationary currents generated in an inhomogeneous quench from bipartitioned initial states. We exemplify the method on the anisotropic Heisenberg model at finite temperatures for the entire range of anisotropies, accessing regimes that are out of reach with other approaches. Quite remarkably, spin Drude weight and asymptotic spin current rates reveal a completely discontinuous (fractal) dependence on the anisotropy parameter.
Using the Bethe ansatz method and generalized hydrodynamics (GHD), properties of the spin transport is analyzed for the integrable XXZ chain with the anisotropy 0 ≤ ∆ < 1.Our approach starts from reconstructing the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz (TBA) equations for the integrable XXZ chain with arbitrary spin.We obtain the fusion hierarchy of the quantum transfer matrices (T -functions) in the arbitrary spin case, and we derive functional relations (T -and Y -systems) satisfied by the T -functions and certain combinations of them (Y -functions).Through analytical arguments, the Y -system is reduced to a set of non-linear integral equations, equivalent to the TBA equations.At first, we use the TBA equations for some higher-spin chains in order to examine the regular zero frequency contribution to the spin current correlation (spin dc conductivity) for the spin-1/2 XXZ chain.In the high temperature limit, we write down the dressed scattering kernels by one quasi-particle bare energies and exactly obtain the spin dc conductivity at zero magnetic field, which is proportional to the inverse temperature β at the β → 0 limit.We find that the high temperature proportionality constant σ reg 0 of the spin dc conductivity is discontinuous at all rational numbers of the anisotropy parameter p 0 = π/ cos -1 ∆ ≥ 2 with the gap increasing larger than the second power of growing magnetization on one quasiparticle.The isotropic ∆ = 1 point is exceptional.Close to this point, σ reg 0 slowly increases in proportion to the first power of the one quasi-particle magnetization.On the other hand, σ reg 0 is proportional to the second power of the same when p 0 approaches irrational numbers.At second, we examine the finite-temperature spin Drude weight for the integrable XXZ chain with arbitrary spin, where GHD methods are employed.We calculate the spin Drude weight at zero magnetic field, and we find a characteristic fractal-like structure of the Drude weight at arbitrary spin across a broad range of temperatures, similar to the spin-1/2 case.In our approach, the solutions to the TBA equations (i.e., the Y -functions) can be explicitly written in terms of the T -functions, thus allowing for a systematic calculation of the hightemperature limit of the Drude weight, as well as the spin dc conductivity in the spin 1/2 case. B Proof of the equivalence between(2.43) and (2.73) C Delivation of the TBA equations for the integrable XXZ chain with arbitrary spin C.1 Free energy . . . . . . . . . .
Abstract Integrable models provide emblematic examples of non-ergodic phenomena. One of their most distinguished properties are divergent zero-frequency conductivities signalled by finite Drude weights. Singular conductivities owe to long-lived quasiparticle excitations that propagate ballistically through the system without any diffraction. The case of the celebrated quantum Heisenberg chain, one of the best-studied many-body paradigms, turns out to be particularly mysterious. About a decade ago, it was found that the spin Drude weight in the critical phase of the model assumes an extraordinary, nowhere continuous, dependence on the anisotropy parameter in the shape of a ‘popcorn function’. This unprecedented discovery has been afterwards resolved at the level of the underlying deformed quantum symmetry algebra which helps explaining the erratic nature of the quasiparticle spectrum at commensurate values of interaction anisotropy. This work is devoted to the captivating phenomenon of discontinuous Drude weights, with the aim to give a broader perspective on the topic by revisiting and reconciling various perspectives from the previous studies. Moreover, it is argued that such an anomalous non-ergodic feature is not exclusive to the integrable spin chain but can be instead expected in a number of other integrable systems that arise from realizations of the quantum group , specialized to unimodular values of the quantum deformation parameter q. Our discussion is framed in the context of gapless anisotropic quantum chains of higher spin and the sine-Gordon quantum field theory in two space-time dimensions.
The anomalous nature of spin transport in the XXZ quantum spin chain has been a topic of theoretical interest for some time. Here, the integrability of the underlying dynamics leads to a ballistic component of the spin current, characterized by a spin Drude weight, which measures the degree of divergence of the zero-frequency spin conductivity. However, this quantity had previously proven to be beyond the reach of standard Bethe ansatz techniques. Here, the authors show that a recently developed hydrodynamic formalism for quantum integrable models may be used to compute the spin Drude weight. They also propose a numerical scheme to obtain hydrodynamic predictions for finite-time energy transport. This suggests that the hydrodynamic approach captures completely the ballistic component that dominates transport at long times and distances in the gapless regime of the XXZ model.
We report a detailed analysis of the Drude weights for both thermal and spin transport in one-dimensional spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ systems by means of exact diagonalization and analytic approaches at finite temperatures. Transport properties are studied first for the integrable XXZ\mathrm{XXZ}XXZ model and second for various nonintegrable systems such as the dimerized chain, the frustrated chain, and the spin ladder. We compare our results obtained by exact diagonalization and mean-field theory with those of the Bethe ansatz, bosonization, and other numerical studies in the case of the anisotropic Heisenberg model both in the gapless and gapped regime. In particular, we find indications that the Drude weight for spin transport is finite in the thermodynamic limit for the isotropic chain. For the nonintegrable models, a finite-size analysis of the numerical data for the Drude weights is presented, covering the entire parameter space of the dimerized and frustrated chain. We also discuss which conclusions can be drawn from bosonization regarding the question of whether the Drude weights are finite or not. One of our main results is that the Drude weights vanish in the thermodynamic limit for nonintegrable models.
Building on the Bethe ansatz and generalized hydrodynamics, we rigorously establish universal relations between Drude weights governing charge, spin, and energy transport and thermodynamic properties for the one-dimensional repulsive two-component continuum Fermi gas - the paradigmatic integrable Yang-Gaudin model. We analytically derive thermodynamic expressions for charge Drude weights: DnnD_{nn}Dnn​, DnmD_{nm}Dnm​, DneD_{ne}Dne​ (responses of particle, magnetization and energy currents to a chemical potential gradient) equal the particle density, magnetization, and temperature times entropy density, respectively. These relations constitute a hallmark of ballistic transport, and can be generalized to other 1D continuum integrable systems. Furthermore, we investigate spin Drude weight (DmmD_{mm}Dmm​, DmeD_{me}Dme​) at zero and low temperatures. They characterize the magnetization and energy current responses to a magnetic field gradient, revealing an essential spin-charge coupling feature in quantum transport. We find that the Drude weights DnmD_{nm}Dnm​, DmmD_{mm}Dmm​, and DmeD_{me}Dme​ across the μ-Hμ\text{-}Hμ-H plane remarkably map out the zero-temperature phase boundary. This work fills a critical gap in the understanding of transport within integrable quantum gases and furnishes a direct theoretical foundation for future ultracold-atom experiments.
We analyze the high-temperature conductivity in one-dimensional integrable models of interacting fermions: the $t\text{\ensuremath{-}}V$ model (anisotropic Heisenberg spin chain) and the Hubbard model, at half-filling in the regime corresponding to insulating ground state. A microcanonical Lanczos method study for finite size systems reveals anomalously large finite-size effects at low frequencies while a frequency-moment analysis indicates a finite dc conductivity. This phenomenon also appears in a prototype integrable quantum system of impenetrable particles, representing a strong-coupling limit of both models. In the thermodynamic limit, the two results could converge to a finite dc conductivity rather than an ideal conductor or insulator scenario.