arXiv:1709.02193 · Journal of Statistical Mechanics Theory and Experiment
Rényi entropies after releasing the Néel state in the XXZ spin-chain
Vincenzo Alba, Pasquale Calabrese
Abstract
Abstract We study the Rényi entropies in the spin- 1 / 2 anisotropic Heisenberg chain after a quantum quench starting from the Néel state. The quench action method allows us to obtain the stationary Rényi entropies for arbitrary values of the index α as generalised free energies evaluated over a calculable thermodynamic macrostate depending on α . We work out this macrostate for several values of α and of the anisotropy Δ by solving the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz equations. By varying α different regions of the Hamiltonian spectrum are accessed. The two extremes are α → ∞ for which the thermodynamic macrostate is either the ground state or a low-lying excited state (depending on Δ) and α = 0 when the macrostate is the infinite temperature state. The Rényi entropies are easily obtained from the macrostate as function of α and a few interesting limits are analytically characterised. We provide robust numerical evidence to confirm our results using exact diagonalisation and a stochastic numerical implementation of Bethe ansatz. Finally, using tDMRG we calculate the time evolution of the Rényi entanglement entropies. For large subsystems and for any α , their density turns out to be compatible with that of the thermodynamic Rényi entropies.