The problem of characterizing low-temperature spin dynamics in antiferromagnetic spin chains has so far remained elusive. Here we reinvestigate it by focusing on isotropic antiferromagnetic chains whose low-energy effective field theory is governed by the quantum nonlinear sigma model. Employing an exact nonperturbative theoretical approach, we analyze the low-temperature behavior in the vicinity of nonmagnetized states and obtain exact expressions for the spin diffusion constant and the NMR relaxation rate, which we compare with previous theoretical results in the literature. Surprisingly, in SU(2)-invariant spin chains in the vicinity of half filling we find a crossover from the semiclassical regime to a strongly interacting quantum regime characterized by zero spin Drude weight and diverging spin conductivity, indicating superdiffusive spin dynamics. The dynamical exponent of spin fluctuations is argued to belong to the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class. Furthermore, by employing numerical time-dependent density matrix renormalization group simulations, we find robust evidence that the anomalous spin transport persists also at high temperatures, irrespective of the spectral gap and integrability of the model.
Isotropic integrable spin chains such as the Heisenberg model feature superdiffusive spin transport belonging to an as-yet-unidentified dynamical universality class closely related to that of Kardar, Parisi, and Zhang (KPZ). To determine whether these results extend to more generic one-dimensional models, particularly those realizable in quantum simulators, we investigate spin and energy transport in non-integrable, long-range Heisenberg models using state-of-the-art tensor network methods. Despite the lack of integrability and the asymptotic expectation of diffusion, for power-law models (with exponent
2<α<∞) we observe long-lived
z=3/2 superdiffusive spin transport and two-point correlators consistent with KPZ scaling functions, up to times
t∼103/J. We conjecture that this KPZ-like transport is due to the proximity of such power-law-interacting models to the integrable family of Inozemtsev models, which we show to also exhibit KPZ-like spin transport across all interaction ranges. Finally, we consider anisotropic spin models naturally realized in Rydberg atom arrays and ultracold polar molecules, demonstrating that a wide range of long-lived, non-diffusive transport can be observed in experimental settings.
Anomalous transport in low dimensional spin chains is an intriguing topic that can offer key insights into the interplay of integrability and symmetry in many-body dynamics. Recent studies have shown that spin-spin correlations in spin chains, where integrability is either perfectly preserved or broken by symmetry-preserving interactions, fall in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class. Similarly, energy transport can show ballistic or diffusive-like behavior. Although such behavior has been studied under equilibrium conditions, no results on nonequilibrium spin transport in classical spin chains has been reported so far. In this work, we investigate both spin and energy transport in classical spin chains (integrable and nonintegrable) when coupled to two reservoirs at two different temperatures/magnetizations. In both the integrable case and the broken-integrability (but spin-symmetry preserving) case, we report anomalous scaling of spin current with system size (J^{s}∝L^{-μ}), with an exponent value that, within error bars, is close to the KPZ universality class value μ≈2/3. On the other hand, it is noteworthy that the energy current remains ballistic (J^{e}∝L^{-η} with η≈0) in the purely integrable case while there is departure from ballistic behavior (η>0) when integrability is broken regardless of spin-symmetry. We also present results on other interesting observables in the nonequilibrium steady state such as the spatial profiles of magnetization and energy, and spin-spin correlations.
Finite temperature spin transport in integrable isotropic spin chains is known to be superdiffusive, with dynamical spin correlations that are conjectured to fall into the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class. However, integrable spin chains have time-reversal and parity symmetries that are absent from the KPZ (Kardar-Parisi-Zhang) or stochastic Burgers equation, which force higher-order spin fluctuations to deviate from standard KPZ predictions. We put forward a nonlinear fluctuating hydrodynamic theory consisting of two coupled stochastic modes: the local spin magnetization and its effective velocity. Our theory fully explains the emergence of anomalous spin dynamics in isotropic chains: it predicts KPZ scaling for the spin structure factor but with a symmetric, quasi-Gaussian, distribution of spin fluctuations. We substantiate our results using matrix-product states calculations.
It is well established that at zero magnetic field
h=0, the spin diffusion constant of the spin-
21 XXZ chain is for anisotropy $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}>1$ finite for both low and high temperatures, implying that the type of spin transport is normal diffusive. Although it is expected that this holds for all finite temperatures
T>0, the calculation of the spin diffusion constant for all
T is typically intractable. Here we consider a class of energy eigenstates that exist both for anisotropies $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}=1$ and $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}>1$. We show that at the isotropic point their contributions are behind the diffusion constant being infinite, spin transport being anomalous superdiffusive for
T>0. That for $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}>1$ such states do not contribute to the diffusion constant is shown to imply it is finite, spin transport being normal diffusive for
T>0. By combining the connection through a Jordan-Wigner transformation of the spin-
21 XXZ chain to the one-dimensional (1D) lattice spinless fermion model at zero chemical potential $\ensuremath{\mu}=0$, for $V/J\ensuremath{\ge}1$ with its Bethe-ansatz solution, where
V is the nearest-neighbor Coulomb repulsion and
J=2t is twice the hopping integral
t, in this paper we also address the issue of the
T>0 charge transport of that model at $\ensuremath{\mu}=0$. It is found to be anomalous superdiffusive for
V/J=1 and normal diffusive for
V/J>1. Our results thus open the door to a key advance in the understanding for all finite temperatures
T>0 of the spin transport in the spin-
21 XXZ chain at
h=0 for anisotropy $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}\ensuremath{\ge}1$ and of the charge transport in the 1D lattice spinless fermion model at $\ensuremath{\mu}=0$ for $V/J\ensuremath{\ge}1$.
Finite-temperature spin transport in the quantum Heisenberg spin chain is known to be superdiffusive, and has been conjectured to lie in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class. Using a kinetic theory of transport, we compute the KPZ coupling strength for the Heisenberg chain as a function of temperature, directly from microscopics; the results agree well with density-matrix renormalization group simulations. We establish a rigorous quantum-classical correspondence between the "giant quasiparticles" that govern superdiffusion and solitons in the classical continuous Landau-Lifshitz ferromagnet. We conclude that KPZ universality has the same origin in classical and quantum integrable isotropic magnets: a finite-temperature gas of low-energy classical solitons.