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arXiv:1912.04821 · Annales Henri Poincaré

Inhomogeneous Conformal Field Theory Out of Equilibrium

Per Moosavi

Published Dec 31, 2021• 49 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract We study the non-equilibrium dynamics of conformal field theory (CFT) in 1+1 dimensions with a smooth position-dependent velocity v(x) explicitly breaking translation invariance. Such inhomogeneous CFT is argued to effectively describe 1+1-dimensional quantum many-body systems with certain inhomogeneities varying on mesoscopic scales. Both heat and charge transport are studied, where, for concreteness, we suppose that our CFT has a conserved U(1) current. Based on projective unitary representations of diffeomorphisms and smooth maps in Minkowskian CFT, we obtain a recipe for computing the exact non-equilibrium dynamics in inhomogeneous CFT when evolving from initial states defined by smooth inverse-temperature and chemical-potential profiles $$\beta (x)$$ β ( x ) and $$\mu (x)$$ μ ( x ) . Using this recipe, the following exact analytical results are obtained: (i) the full time evolution of densities and currents for heat and charge transport, (ii) correlation functions for components of the energy–momentum tensor and the U(1) current as well as for any primary field, and (iii) the thermal and electrical conductivities. The latter are computed by direct dynamical considerations and alternatively using a Green–Kubo formula. Both give the same explicit expressions for the conductivities, which reveal how inhomogeneous dynamics opens up the possibility for diffusion as well as implies a generalization of the Wiedemann–Franz law to finite times within CFT.

DOI
10.1007/s00023-021-01118-0

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Abstract We study the non-equilibrium dynamics of conformal field theory (CFT) in 1+1 dimensions with a smooth position-dependent velocity v(x) explicitly breaking translation invariance. Such inhomogeneous CFT is argued to effectively describe 1+1-dimensional quantum many-body systems with certain inhomogeneities varying on mesoscopic scales. Both heat and charge transport are studied, where, for concreteness, we suppose that our CFT has a conserved U(1) current. Based on projective unitary representations of diffeomorphisms and smooth maps in Minkowskian CFT, we obtain a recipe for computing the exact non-equilibrium dynamics in inhomogeneous CFT when evolving from initial states defined by smooth inverse-temperature and chemical-potential profiles β(x)\beta (x)β(x) β ( x ) and μ(x)\mu (x)μ(x) μ ( x ) . Using this recipe, the following exact analytical results are obtained: (i) the full time evolution of densities and currents for heat and charge transport, (ii) correlation functions for components of the energy–momentum tensor and the U(1) current as well as for any primary field, and (iii) the thermal and electrical conductivities. The latter are computed by direct dynamical considerations and alternatively using a Green–Kubo formula. Both give the same explicit expressions for the conductivities, which reveal how inhomogeneous dynamics opens up the possibility for diffusion as well as implies a generalization of the Wiedemann–Franz law to finite times within CFT.
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 propose and study a conformal field theory (CFT) model with random position-dependent velocity that, as we argue, naturally emerges as an effective description of heat transport in one-dimensional quantum many-body systems with certain static random impurities. We present exact analytical results that elucidate how purely ballistic heat waves in standard CFT can acquire normal and anomalous diffusive contributions due to our impurities. Our results include impurity-averaged Green's functions describing the time evolution of the energy density and the heat current, and an explicit formula for the thermal conductivity that, in addition to a universal Drude peak, has a nontrivial real regular contribution that depends on details of the impurities.
Recently, remarkably simple exact results were presented about the dynamics of heat transport in the local Luttinger model for nonequilibrium initial states defined by position-dependent temperature profiles. We present mathematical details on how these results were obtained. We also give an alternative derivation using only algebraic relations involving the energy-momentum tensor which hold true in any unitary conformal field theory (CFT). This establishes a simple universal correspondence between initial temperature profiles and the resulting heat-wave propagation in CFT. We extend these results to larger classes of nonequilibrium states. It is proposed that such universal CFT relations provide benchmarks to identify nonuniversal properties of nonequilibrium dynamics in other models.
We study inhomogeneous 1+1-dimensional quantum many-body systems described by Tomonaga-Luttinger-liquid theory with general propagation velocity and Luttinger parameter varying smoothly in space, equivalent to an inhomogeneous compactification radius for free boson conformal field theory. This model appears prominently in low-energy descriptions, including for trapped ultracold atoms, while here we present an application to quantum Hall edges with inhomogeneous interactions. The dynamics is shown to be governed by a pair of coupled continuity equations identical to inhomogeneous Dirac-Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations with a local gap and solved by analytical means. We obtain their exact Green's functions and scattering matrix using a Magnus expansion, which generalize previous results for conformal interfaces and quantum wires coupled to leads. Our results explicitly describe the late-time evolution following quantum quenches, including inhomogeneous interaction quenches, and Andreev reflections between coupled quantum Hall edges, revealing remarkably universal dependence on details at stationarity or at late times out of equilibrium.
Conformal field theory (CFT) has been extremely successful in describing large-scale universal effects in one-dimensional (1D) systems at quantum critical points. Unfortunately, its applicability in condensed matter physics has been limited to situations in which the bulk is uniform because CFT describes low-energy excitations around some energy scale, taken to be constant throughout the system. However, in many experimental contexts, such as quantum gases in trapping potentials and in several out-of-equilibrium situations, systems are strongly inhomogeneous. We show here that the powerful CFT methods can be extended to deal with such 1D situations, providing a few concrete examples for non-interacting Fermi gases. The system's inhomogeneity enters the field theory action through parameters that vary with position; in particular, the metric itself varies, resulting in a CFT in curved space. This approach allows us to derive exact formulas for entanglement entropies which were not known by other means.
We consider the out-of-equilibrium transport in TT[over ¯]-deformed (1+1)-dimension conformal field theories (CFTs). The theories admit two disparate approaches, integrability and holography, which we make full use of in order to compute the transport quantities, such as the exact nonequilibrium steady state currents. We find perfect agreements between the results obtained from these two methods, which serve as nontrivial checks of the TT[over ¯]-deformed holographic correspondence from the dynamical standpoint. It turns out that integrability also allows us to compute the momentum diffusion, which is given by a universal formula. We also remark on an intriguing connection between the TT[over ¯]-deformed CFTs and reversible cellular automata.