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arXiv:1703.05971 · Journal of Statistical Mechanics Theory and Experiment

Dynamics of hard rods with initial domain wall state

Benjamin Doyon, Herbert E. Spohn

Published Jul 1, 2017• 171 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract Inspired by recent results on the non-equilibrium dynamics of many-body quantum systems, we study the classical hard rod problem in one dimension with initial domain wall condition. Hard rods are an integrable system, in the sense that for each velocity the density of particles is locally conserved. It was proven by Boldrighini et al (1983 J. Stat. Phys . 31 577) that on the hydrodynamic space-time scale, the fluid of hard rods satisfies Euler-type equations which comprise all conservation laws. We provide the general solution to these equations on the line, with an initial condition where the left and right halves are, asymptotically, in different states. The solution is interpreted as being composed of a continuum of contact discontinuities, one for each velocity. This is a classical counterpart of the transport problem solved recently in quantum integrable systems. We also discuss the Navier–Stokes (viscous) corrections, and study its effect on the broadening of the contact discontinuity and on entropy production.

DOI
10.1088/1742-5468/aa7abf

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Abstract Inspired by recent results on the non-equilibrium dynamics of many-body quantum systems, we study the classical hard rod problem in one dimension with initial domain wall condition. Hard rods are an integrable system, in the sense that for each velocity the density of particles is locally conserved. It was proven by Boldrighini et al (1983 J. Stat. Phys . 31 577) that on the hydrodynamic space-time scale, the fluid of hard rods satisfies Euler-type equations which comprise all conservation laws. We provide the general solution to these equations on the line, with an initial condition where the left and right halves are, asymptotically, in different states. The solution is interpreted as being composed of a continuum of contact discontinuities, one for each velocity. This is a classical counterpart of the transport problem solved recently in quantum integrable systems. We also discuss the Navier–Stokes (viscous) corrections, and study its effect on the broadening of the contact discontinuity and on entropy production.
Abstract We consider a system of many hard rods moving in one dimension. As it is an integrable system, it possesses an extensive number of conserved quantities and its evolution on a macroscopic scale can be described by generalized hydrodynamics. Using a microscopic approach, we compute the evolution of the conserved densities starting from non-equilibrium initial conditions of both quenched and annealed type. In addition to being reduced to the Euler solutions of the hydrodynamics in the thermodynamic limit, the microscopic solutions can also capture the effects of the Navier–Stokes terms and thus go beyond the Euler solutions. We demonstrate this feature from microscopic analysis and from numerical solution of the Navier–Stokes equation in two problems—first, tracer diffusion in a background of hard rods and, second, the evolution from a domain wall initial condition in which the velocity distribution of the rods is different on the two sides of the interface. We supplement our analytical results with extensive numerical simulations.
Abstract We consider the relaxation of an initial non-equilibrium state in a one-dimensional fluid of hard rods. Since it is an interacting integrable system, we expect it to reach the Generalized Gibbs Ensemble (GGE) at long times for generic initial conditions. Here we show that there exist initial conditions for which the system does not reach GGE even at very long times and in the thermodynamic limit. In particular, we consider an initial condition of uniformly distributed hard-rods in a box with the left half having particles with a singular velocity distribution (all moving with unit velocity) and the right half particles in thermal equilibrium. We find that the density profile for the singular component does not spread to the full extent of the box and keeps moving with a fixed effective speed at long times. We show that such density profiles can be well described by the solution of the Euler equations almost everywhere except at the location of the shocks, where we observe slight discrepancies due to dissipation arising from the initial fluctuations of the thermal background. To demonstrate this effect of dissipation analytically, we consider a second initial condition with a single particle at the origin with unit velocity in a thermal background. We find that the probability distribution of the position of the unit velocity quasi-particle has diffusive spreading which can be understood from the solution of the Navier–Stokes (NS) equation of the hard rods. Finally, we consider an initial condition with a spread in velocity distribution for which we show convergence to GGE. Our conclusions are based on molecular dynamics simulations supported by analytical arguments.
We consider a one-dimensional gas of hard rods, one of the simplest examples of an interacting integrable model. It is well known that the hydrodynamics of such integrable models can be understood by viewing the system as a gas of quasiparticles. Here, we explore the dynamics of individual quasiparticles for a variety of initial conditions of the background gas. The mean, variance, and two-time correlations are computed exactly and lead to a picture of quasiparticles as drifting Brownian particles. For the case of a homogeneous background, we show that the motion of two tagged quasiparticles is strongly correlated, and they move like a rigid rod at late times. Apart from a microscopic derivation based on the mapping to point particles, we provide an alternate derivation which emphasizes that quasiparticle fluctuations are related to initial phase-space fluctuations, which are carried over in time by Euler scale dynamics. For the homogeneous state, we use the Brownian motion picture to develop a Dean-Kawasaki-type fluctuating hydrodynamic theory, formally having the same structure as that derived recently by Ferrari and Olla. We discuss differences with existing proposals on the hydrodynamics of hard rods and some puzzles.
We consider a system of classical hard rods or billiard balls in one dimension, initially prepared in a Bragg-pulse state at a given temperature and subjected to external periodic fields. We show that at late times the system always thermalises in the thermodynamic limit via a 3-stages process characterised by: an early phase where the dynamics is well described by Euler hydrodynamics, a subsequent where a (weak) turbulent phase is observed and where hydrodynamic gradient expansion can be broken, and a final one where the gas thermalises according to a viscous hydrodynamics. As the hard rod gas shares the same large-scale hydrodynamics as other quantum and classical integrable systems, we expect these features to universally characterise all many-body integrable systems in generic external potentials.
We show that hydrodynamic diffusion is generically present in many-body, one-dimensional interacting quantum and classical integrable models. We extend the recently developed generalized hydrodynamic (GHD) to include terms of Navier-Stokes type, which leads to positive entropy production and diffusive relaxation mechanisms. These terms provide the subleading diffusive corrections to Euler-scale GHD for the large-scale nonequilibrium dynamics of integrable systems, and arise due to two-body scatterings among quasiparticles. We give exact expressions for the diffusion coefficients. Our results apply to a large class of integrable models, including quantum and classical, Galilean and relativistic field theories, chains, and gases in one dimension, such as the Lieb-Liniger model describing cold atom gases and the Heisenberg quantum spin chain. We provide numerical evaluations in the Heisenberg XXZ spin chain, both for the spin diffusion constant, and for the diffusive effects during the melting of a small domain wall of spins, finding excellent agreement with time-dependent density matrix renormalization group numerical simulations.