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arXiv:1704.05474 · Physical review. E

Work extraction in an isolated quantum lattice system: Grand canonical and generalized Gibbs ensemble predictions

Ranjan Modak, Marcos Rigol

Published Jun 30, 2017• 10 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study work extraction (defined as the difference between the initial and the final energy) in noninteracting and (effectively) weakly interacting isolated fermionic quantum lattice systems in one dimension, which undergo a sequence of quenches and equilibration. The systems are divided in two parts, which we identify as the subsystem of interest and the bath. We extract work by quenching the on-site potentials in the subsystem, letting the entire system equilibrate, and returning to the initial parameters in the subsystem using a quasistatic process (the bath is never acted upon). We select initial states that are direct products of thermal states of the subsystem and the bath, and consider equilibration to the generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE, noninteracting case) and to the Gibbs ensemble (GE, weakly interacting case). We identify the class of quenches that, in the thermodynamic limit, results in GE and GGE entropies after the quench that are identical to the one in the initial state (quenches that do not produce entropy). Those quenches guarantee maximal work extraction when thermalization occurs. We show that the same remains true in the presence of integrable dynamics that results in equilibration to the GGE.

DOI
10.1103/physreve.95.062145

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We study work extraction (defined as the difference between the initial and the final energy) in noninteracting and (effectively) weakly interacting isolated fermionic quantum lattice systems in one dimension, which undergo a sequence of quenches and equilibration. The systems are divided in two parts, which we identify as the subsystem of interest and the bath. We extract work by quenching the on-site potentials in the subsystem, letting the entire system equilibrate, and returning to the initial parameters in the subsystem using a quasistatic process (the bath is never acted upon). We select initial states that are direct products of thermal states of the subsystem and the bath, and consider equilibration to the generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE, noninteracting case) and to the Gibbs ensemble (GE, weakly interacting case). We identify the class of quenches that, in the thermodynamic limit, results in GE and GGE entropies after the quench that are identical to the one in the initial state (quenches that do not produce entropy). Those quenches guarantee maximal work extraction when thermalization occurs. We show that the same remains true in the presence of integrable dynamics that results in equilibration to the GGE.
We investigate work extraction from integrable quantum systems under unitary operations. As a model system, we consider noninteracting fermions in one dimension. Thanks to its integrability, this system does not thermalize after a perturbation, even though it does reach a steady state which can be described by a generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE). Such a GGE has an excess free energy compared to a thermal state and we propose to extract this energy by applying Bragg pulses. We show how all the available work in the GGE can be extracted in the adiabatic limit while some excess energy is left at finite times. The unextracted work reaches the adiabatic limit as a power law with exponent $z=\ensuremath{-}2$ for small systems and with $z=\ensuremath{-}1$ in the thermodynamic limit. Two distinct protocols for combining the Bragg operations are compared, and in some systems an extensive difference in efficiency arises. From the unextracted work and the entropy production, a notion of temperature is defined and compared to the Boltzmann-Gibbs temperature of the system.
Recent years have seen an enormously revived interest in the study of thermodynamic notions in the quantum regime. This applies both to the study of notions of work extraction in thermal machines in the quantum regime, as well as to questions of equilibration and thermalisation of interacting quantum many-body systems as such. In this work we bring together these two lines of research by studying work extraction in a closed system that undergoes a sequence of quenches and equilibration steps concomitant with free evolutions. In this way, we incorporate an important insight from the study of the dynamics of quantum many body systems: the evolution of closed systems is expected to be well described, for relevant observables and most times, by a suitable equilibrium state. We will consider three kinds of equilibration, namely to (i) the time averaged state, (ii) the Gibbs ensemble and (iii) the generalised Gibbs ensemble, reflecting further constants of motion in integrable models. For each effective description, we investigate notions of entropy production, the validity of the minimal work principle and properties of optimal work extraction protocols. While we keep the discussion general, much room is dedicated to the discussion of paradigmatic non-interacting fermionic quantum many-body systems, for which we identify significant differences with respect to the role of the minimal work principle. Our work not only has implications for experiments with cold atoms, but also can be viewed as suggesting a mindset for quantum thermodynamics where the role of the external heat baths is instead played by the system itself, with its internal degrees of freedom bringing coarse-grained observables to equilibrium.
Abstract The generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE) was introduced ten years ago to describe observables in isolated integrable quantum systems after equilibration. Since then, the GGE has been demonstrated to be a powerful tool to predict the outcome of the relaxation dynamics of few-body observables in a variety of integrable models, a process we call generalized thermalization. This review discusses several fundamental aspects of the GGE and generalized thermalization in integrable systems. In particular, we focus on questions such as: which observables equilibrate to the GGE predictions and who should play the role of the bath; what conserved quantities can be used to construct the GGE; what are the differences between generalized thermalization in noninteracting systems and in interacting systems mappable to noninteracting ones; why is it that the GGE works when traditional ensembles of statistical mechanics fail. Despite a lot of interest in these questions in recent years, no definite answers have been given. We review results for the XX model and for the transverse field Ising model. For the latter model, we also report original results and show that the GGE describes spin–spin correlations over the entire system. This makes apparent that there is no need to trace out a part of the system in real space for equilibration to occur and for the GGE to apply. In the past, a spectral decomposition of the weights of various statistical ensembles revealed that generalized eigenstate thermalization occurs in the XX model (hard-core bosons). Namely, eigenstates of the Hamiltonian with similar distributions of conserved quantities have similar expectation values of few-spin observables. Here we show that generalized eigenstate thermalization also occurs in the transverse field Ising model.
We consider quantum quenches in the so-called q -boson lattice model. We argue that the Generalized Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis holds in this model, therefore the Generalized Gibbs Ensemble (GGE) gives a valid description of the stationary states in the long time limit. For a special class of initial states (which are the pure Fock states in the local basis) we are able to provide the GGE predictions for the resulting root densities. We also give predictions for the long-time limit of certain local operators. In the q → ∞ limit the calculations simplify considerably, the wave functions are given by Schur polynomials and the overlaps with the initial states can be written as simple determinants. In two cases we prove rigorously that the GGE prediction for the root density is correct. Moreover, we calculate the exact time dependence of a physical observable (the one-site Emptiness Formation Probability) for the quench starting from the state with exactly one particle per site. In the long-time limit the GGE prediction is recovered.
We investigate the crossover of the entanglement entropy toward its thermal value in nearly integrable systems. We employ equations-of-motion techniques to study the entanglement dynamics in a lattice model of weakly interacting spinless fermions after a quantum quench. For weak enough interactions we observe a two-step relaxation of the entanglement entropies of finite subsystems. Initially, the entropies follow a nearly integrable evolution, approaching the value predicted by the generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE) of the unperturbed model. Then, they start a slow drift toward the thermal stationary value described by a standard Gibbs ensemble (GE). While the initial relaxation to the GGE is independent of the interaction, the slow drift from GGE to GE values happens on timescales proportional to the inverse interaction squared. For asymptotically large times and subsystem sizes the dynamics of the entropies can be predicted using a modified quasiparticle picture that keeps track of the evolution of the fermionic occupations caused by the integrability breaking. This picture gives a quantitative description of the results as long as the integrability-breaking timescale is much larger than the one associated with the (quasi)saturation to the GGE. In the opposite limit, the quasiparticle picture still provides the correct late-time behavior, but it underestimates the initial slope of the entanglement entropy.
We study the quantum relaxation dynamics for a lattice version of the one-dimensional (1D) NNN-flavor Gross-Neveu (GN) model after a Hamiltonian parameter quench. Allowing for a system-reservoir coupling γγγ, we numerically describe the system dynamics through a time-dependent self-consistent Lindblad master equation. For a closed (γ=0γ=0γ=0) finite-size system subjected to an interaction parameter quench, the order parameter dynamics exhibits oscillations and revivals. In the thermodynamic limit, our results imply that the order parameter reaches its post-quench stationary value in accordance with the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH). However, time-dependent finite-momentum correlation matrix elements equilibrate only if γ>0γ>0γ>0. Our findings are consistent with the system being described by a pertinent Generalized Gibbs Ensemble (GGE) and, accordingly, highlight subtle yet important aspects of the post-quench relaxation dynamics of quantum many-body systems.