We study quantum transport after an inhomogeneous quantum quench in a free fermion lattice system in the presence of a localised defect. Using a new rigorous analytical approach for the calculation of large time and distance asymptotics of physical observables, we derive the exact profiles of particle density and current. Our analysis shows that the predictions of a semiclassical approach that has been extensively applied in similar problems match exactly with the correct asymptotics, except for possible finite distance corrections close to the defect. We generalise our formulas to an arbitrary non-interacting particle-conserving defect, expressing them in terms of its scattering properties.
We study quantum transport after an inhomogeneous quantum quench in a free fermion lattice system in the presence of a localised defect. Using a new rigorous analytical approach for the calculation of large time and distance asymptotics of physical observables, we derive the exact profiles of particle density and current. Our analysis shows that the predictions of a semiclassical approach that has been extensively applied in similar problems match exactly with the correct asymptotics, except for possible finite distance corrections close to the defect. We generalise our formulas to an arbitrary non-interacting particle-conserving defect, expressing them in terms of its scattering properties.
The study of collective behaviour in many-body systems often explores fundamentally new ideas absent from the mere constituents of such a system. A paradigmatic model for these studies is the spin-1/2 XXZ chain and its fermionic equivalent. This thesis can be broadly divided into the study of two fundamental aspects of this model. Firstly, we discuss localisation phenomena in one dimensional lattices as often experimentally realised in cold atom systems. Secondly, we investigate how disorder and symmetry influence heat transport in spin chains. More specifically, in the first part we consider a system of non-interacting fermions in one dimension subject to a single-particle potential consisting of a strong optical lattice, a harmonic trap, and uncorrelated on-site disorder. We investigate a global inhomogeneous quantum quench and present numerical and analytical results for static and dynamical properties. We show that the approach to the non-thermal equilibrium state is extremely slow and that it implies a sensitivity to disorder parametrically stronger than that expected from Anderson localisation. We also consider the above system in a strong non-uniform electric field. In the non-interacting case, due to Wannier-Stark localisation, the single-particle wave functions are exponentially localised without quenched disorder. We show that this system remains localised in the presence of nearest-neighbour interactions and exhibits physics analogous to models of conventional many-body localisation. The second part explores the hydrodynamics of the disordered XYZ spin chain. Using time-evolving block decimation on open chains of up to 400 spins attached to thermal baths, we probe the energy transport of this system. Our principal findings are as follows. For weak disorder there is a stable diffusive region that persists up to a critical disorder strength that depends on the XY anisotropy. Then, for disorder strengths above this critical value energy transport becomes increasingly subdiffusive.
Recent experimental advances on ultracold atomic gases and trapped ions have made it possible to simulate exactly solvable quantum systems of interacting particles. In particular, the feasibility of making rapid changes, so-called quantum quenches, to such set-ups has allowed experimentalists to probe non-equilibrium phenomena in closed interacting quantum systems. This, in turn, has spurred a considerable theoretical interest in quantum many-body systems out of equilibrium. In this thesis, we study non-equilibrium properties of quantum many-body systems in the framework of exactly solvable quantum field theory in one spatial dimension. Specific systems include interacting fermions described by the Luttinger model and effective descriptions of spin chains using conformal field theory (CFT). Special emphasis is placed on heat and charge transport, studied from the point of view of quench dynamics, and, in particular, the effects of breaking conformal symmetries on transport properties. Examples include the Luttinger model with non-local interactions, breaking Lorentz and scale invariance, and inhomogeneous CFT, which generalizes standard CFT in that the usual propagation velocity v is replaced by a function v(x) that depends smoothly on the position x, breaking translation invariance. The quench dynamics studied here is for quantum quenches between, in general, different smooth inhomogeneous systems. An example of this is the so-called smooth-profile protocol, in which the initial state is defined by, e.g., smooth inhomogeneous profiles of inverse temperature and chemical potential, and the time evolution is governed by a homogeneous Hamiltonian. Using this protocol, we compute exact analytical results for the full time evolution of the systems mentioned above. In particular, we derive finite-time results that are universal in the sense that the same relations between the non-equilibrium dynamics and the initial profiles hold for any unitary CFT. These results also make clear that heat and charge transport in standard CFT are purely ballistic. Finally, we propose and study an inhomogeneous CFT model with v(x) given by a random function. We argue that this model naturally emerges as an effective description of one-dimensional quantum many-body systems with certain static random impurities. Using tools from wave propagation in random media, we show that such impurities lead to normal and anomalous diffusive contributions to heat transport on top of the ballistic one known from standard CFT.
We use a semiclassical approach to study out-of-equilibrium dynamics and transport in quantum systems with massive quasiparticle excitations having internal quantum numbers. In the universal limit of low-energy quasiparticles, the system is described in terms of a classical gas of colored hard-core particles. Starting from an inhomogeneous initial state, in this limit we give analytic expressions for the space- and time-dependent spin density and spin current profiles. Depending on the initial state, the spin transport is found to be ballistic or diffusive. In the ballistic case we identify a ``second front'' that moves more slowly than the maximal quasiparticle velocity. Our analytic results also capture the diffusive broadening of this ballistically propagating front. To go beyond the universal limit, we study the effect of nontrivial scattering processes in the O(3) nonlinear sigma model by performing Monte Carlo simulations, and we observe local equilibration around the second front in terms of the densities of the particle species.
We study the interplay between an inhomogeneous quantum quench of the external potential in a system of relativistic fermions in one-dimension and the well-known Klein tunneling. We find that the large time evolution is characterized by particle production at a constant rate which we derive analytically. The produced particles can be physically interpreted according to a semiclassical picture and the state reached in the long time limit can be classified as a non-equilibrium-steady-state. Such a quantum quench can be used in order to observe macroscopic effects of Klein tunneling in transport, with potential implementations with current experimental setups.
We study the dynamics of charge fluctuations after homogeneous quantum quenches in one-dimensional systems with ballistic transport. For short but macroscopic times where the non-trivial dynamics is largely dominated by long-range correlations, a simple expression for the associated full counting statistics can be obtained by hydrodynamic arguments. This formula links the non-equilibrium charge fluctuation after the quench to the fluctuations of the associated current after a charge-biased inhomogeneous modification of the original quench which corresponds to the paradigmatic partitioning protocol. Under certain assumptions, the fluctuations in the latter case can be expressed by explicit closed form formulas in terms of thermodynamic and hydrodynamic quantities via the Ballistic Fluctuation Theory. In this work, we identify precise physical conditions for the applicability of a fully hydrodynamic theory, and provide a detailed analysis explicitly demonstrating how such conditions are met and how this leads to such hydrodynamic treatment. We discuss these conditions at length in non-relativistic free fermions, where calculations become feasible and allow for cross-checks against exact results. In physically relevant cases, strong long-range correlations can complicate the hydrodynamic picture, but our formula still correctly reproduces the first cumulants.
We consider the non-equilibrium physics induced by joining together two tight-binding fermionic chains to form a single chain. Before being joined, each chain is in a many-fermion ground state. The fillings (densities) in the two chains might be different. We present a number of exact results, focusing on two-point correlators and the Loschmidt echo (return probability). For the non-interacting case, we identify through an exact derivation the regime in which a semiclassical ansatz is valid. We present a number of analytical results beyond semiclassics, such as the approach to the non-equilibrium steady state and the appearance of Tracy-Widom distributions at the front of the light cone. The light cone behavior is quantified through a series expansion in time, and this description is shown to be valid for interacting systems as well. Results on the Loschmidt echo, presented for finite and zero interactions, illustrate that the physics is different from both local and global quenches.