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arXiv:2002.01069 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Nonequilibrium physics in integrable systems and spin-flip non-invariant conserved quantities

Chihiro Matsui

Published Feb 4, 2020• 3 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract Recently found spin-flip non-invariant (SFNI) conserved quantities play important roles in discussing nonequilibrium physics of the XXZ model. The representative examples are the generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE) and the ballistic transport of the spin current. In spite of big progress in understanding nonequilibrium physics of integrable systems, the general framework to determine a minimal complete set of conserved quantities which describes the long-time steady state has not yet been found. This paper shows that the GGE of the gapless XXZ model consists of functionally independent conserved quantities rather than linearly independent. At the same time, the physical meaning of SFNI conserved quantities is provided. We also discuss that there exist ballistic channels of the spin current supported by non-quasilocal conserved quantities. The saturation of the lower bound for the Drude weight by quasilocal conserved quantities reads the linear dependence of non-quasilocal conserved quantities on quasilocal ones. We show that their (generalized) linearly dependence relation is consistent with the statement that the GGE consists of functionally independent conserved quantities without containing all linearly independent conserved quantities.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8121/ab72ae

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Abstract Recently found spin-flip non-invariant (SFNI) conserved quantities play important roles in discussing nonequilibrium physics of the XXZ model. The representative examples are the generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE) and the ballistic transport of the spin current. In spite of big progress in understanding nonequilibrium physics of integrable systems, the general framework to determine a minimal complete set of conserved quantities which describes the long-time steady state has not yet been found. This paper shows that the GGE of the gapless XXZ model consists of functionally independent conserved quantities rather than linearly independent. At the same time, the physical meaning of SFNI conserved quantities is provided. We also discuss that there exist ballistic channels of the spin current supported by non-quasilocal conserved quantities. The saturation of the lower bound for the Drude weight by quasilocal conserved quantities reads the linear dependence of non-quasilocal conserved quantities on quasilocal ones. We show that their (generalized) linearly dependence relation is consistent with the statement that the GGE consists of functionally independent conserved quantities without containing all linearly independent conserved quantities.
Abstract We revisit the question of whether and how the steady states arising after non-equilibrium time evolution in integrable models (and in particular in the XXZ spin chain) can be described by the so-called generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE). Whereas it is known that the micro-canonical ensemble built on a complete set of charges correctly describes the long-time limit of local observables, it has been shown recently by Ilievski et al that the corresponding canonical ensemble is not well defined, and instead a different canonical ensemble was proposed in terms of particle occupation number operators. Here we provide an alternative construction by considering truncated GGEs (tGGEs) that include only a finite number of local and quasi-local conserved operators. It is shown that the tGGEs can approximate the steady states with arbitrary precision, i.e. all physical observables are exactly reproduced in the infinite truncation limit. We trace back the problems encountered in defining an untruncated GGE to the dependence of the associated Lagrange multipliers on the truncation index. Conversely, we show that this problem may be circumvented by considering a new set of (quasi)local charges which are linear combinations of the standard ones, and whose associated Lagrange multipliers are well-defined state functions. Our general arguments are applied to concrete quench situations in the XXZ chain, where the initial states are simple two-site or four-site product states. Depending on the quench we find that numerical results for the local correlators can be obtained with remarkable precision using truncated GGEs with only 10–100 charges.
We establish a relation between two hallmarks of integrable systems: the relaxation towards the generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE) and the dissipationless charge transport. We show that the former one is possible only if the so-called Mazur bound on the charge stiffness is saturated by local conserved quantities. As an example we show how a non-GGE steady state with a current can be generated in the one-dimensional model of interacting spinless fermions with a flux quench. Moreover, an extended GGE involving the quasilocal conserved quantities can be formulated for this case.
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.
Integrable quantum systems evolving from non-equilibrium initial states do not thermalize to conventional Gibbs ensembles (GE). Instead, at long times they relax to generalized Gibbs ensembles (GGEs), which incorporate the full set of local and quasi-local conserved quantities. While GGEs have been extensively studied in the literature, a quantitative analytic characterization of how different they are from ordinary GEs is still lacking. In this work, we address this question by employing the concept of athermality, which we define within quantum resource theory as the relative entropy between a given state and the closest thermal state. By means of integrability techniques we compute the athermality for several quantum quenches in paradigmatic integrable models, including the free XY spin chain, the interacting Lieb-Liniger model, the XXZ spin chain, and the harmonic chain. We find that often the athermality becomes anomalously small when the post-quench Hamiltonian is critical in its ground state, despite probing physics at a finite energy density. We also prove that it systematically develops a singularity at criticality, which is inherited from the entropy of the GGE.
Abstract It has recently been shown that some integrable spin chains possess a set of quasilocal conserved charges, with the classic example being the spin- 1 2 XXZ Heisenberg chain. These charges have been proven to be essential in order to properly describe stationary states after a quantum quench, and must be included in the generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE). We find that similar charges are also necessary for the GGE description of integrable quantum field theories with nondiagonal scattering. A stationary state in a nondiagonal scattering theory is completely specified by fixing the mode-occupation density distributions of physical particles, as well auxiliary particles which carry no energy or momentum. We show that the set of conserved charges with integer Lorentz spin, related to the integrability of the model, is unable to fix the distributions of these auxiliary particles, since these charges can only fix the kinematical properties of physical particles. The field theory analogs of the quasilocal lattice charges are therefore necessary. As a concrete example, we find the complete set of charges needed in the sine-Gordon model, by using the fact that this field theory is recovered as the continuum limit of a spatially inhomogeneous version of the XXZ chain. The set of quasilocal charges of the lattice theory is shown to become a set of local charges with fractional spin in the field theory.
The nonequilibrium dynamics of isolated many-body quantum systems leads generically to the emergence of standard thermal ensembles. However, some models, denoted as integrable, can display nontrivial steady states with a large memory of the initial state. This is due to the presence of conserved quantities constraining the unitary dynamics. Here, the authors show that in interacting integrable spin chains there exist also conserved operators that are responsible for ballistic spin transport. Such conserved operators highly influence both the equilibrium and nonequilibrium physics: at equilibrium they are responsible for a nonvanishing spin Drude weight even at half filling, while in the nonequilibrium case they are responsible for out-of-equilibrium steady states characterized by persistent spin currents or dynamically expanding magnetic domains.