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arXiv:2007.00369 · Journal of Statistical Mechanics Theory and Experiment

Inhomogeneous XX spin chains and quasi-exactly solvable models

Federico Finkel, Artemio González-López

Published Sep 1, 2020• 15 citations
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Abstract

Abstract We establish a direct connection between inhomogeneous XX spin chains (or free fermion systems with nearest-neighbors hopping) and certain QES models on the line giving rise to a family of weakly orthogonal polynomials. We classify all such models and their associated XX chains, which include two families related to the Lamé (finite gap) quantum potential on the line. For one of these chains, we numerically compute the Rényi bipartite entanglement entropy at half filling and derive an asymptotic approximation thereof by studying the model’s continuum limit, which turns out to describe a massless Dirac fermion on a suitably curved background. We show that the leading behavior of the entropy is that of a c = 1 critical system, although there is a subleading log(log N ) correction (where N is the number of sites) unusual in this type of models.

DOI
10.1088/1742-5468/abb237

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Abstract We introduce a family of inhomogeneous XX spin chains whose squared couplings are a polynomial of degree at most four in the site index. We show how to obtain an asymptotic approximation for the Rényi entanglement entropy of all such chains in a constant magnetic field at half filling by exploiting their connection with the conformal field theory of a massless Dirac fermion in a suitably curved static background. We study the above approximation for three particular chains in the family, two of them related to well-known quasi-exactly solvable quantum models on the line and the third one to classical Krawtchouk polynomials, finding an excellent agreement with the exact value obtained numerically when the Rényi parameter α is less than one. When α ≥ 1 we find parity oscillations, as expected from the homogeneous case, and show that they are very accurately reproduced by a modification of the Fagotti-Calabrese formula. We have also analyzed the asymptotic behavior of the Rényi entanglement entropy in the non-standard situation of arbitrary filling and/or inhomogeneous magnetic field. Our numerical results show that in this case a block of spins at each end of the chain becomes disentangled from the rest. Moreover, the asymptotic approximation for the case of half filling and constant magnetic field, when suitably rescaled to the region of non-vanishing entropy, provides a rough approximation to the entanglement entropy also in this general case.
Abstract 15 exactly solvable inhomogeneous (spinless) fermion systems on 1D lattices are constructed explicitly based on the discrete orthogonal polynomials of the Askey scheme, e.g. Krawtchouk, Hahn, Racah, Meixner, and q-Racah polynomials. The Schrödinger and Heisenberg equations are solved explicitly, as the entire set of the eigenvalues and eigenstates are known explicitly. The ground-state two-point correlation functions are derived explicitly. The multipoint correlation functions are obtained by Wick’s theorem. 15 corresponding exactly solvable XX spin systems are also displayed. They all have nearest-neighbor interactions. The exact solvability of the Schrödinger equation means that the corresponding Fokker–Planck equation is also exactly solvable. This leads to 15 exactly solvable birth and death fermions and 15 birth and death spin models. These provide plenty of material for calculating interesting quantities, e.g. entanglement entropy, etc.
We study the Rényi entanglement entropies of two disjoint intervals in XY chains. We exploit the exact solution of the model in terms of free Majorana fermions and we show how to construct the reduced density matrix in the spin variables by taking the Jordan–Wigner string between the two blocks properly into account. From this we can evaluate any Rényi entropy of finite integer order. We study in detail critical XX and Ising chains and we show that the asymptotic results for large blocks agree with recent conformal field theory predictions if corrections to the scaling are included in the analysis correctly. We also report results for the gapped phase and after a quantum quench.
New exactly solvable one-dimensional XX spin chain models that exhibit perfect state transfer are defined. These models have inhomogeneous couplings and magnetic fields determined from the three-term recurrence relations satisfied by the q-Racah and para q-Racah polynomials. Due to this connection with orthogonal polynomials, the one-excitation sector can be solved analytically. This allows us to provide explicit sets of conditions on the polynomial parameters that guarantee the occurrence of perfect state transfer across these spin chains.
Abstract New exactly solvable one-dimensional XX spin chain models that exhibit perfect state transfer (PST) are defined. These models have inhomogeneous couplings and magnetic fields determined from the three-term recurrence relations satisfied by the q -Racah and para q -Racah polynomials. Due to this connection with orthogonal polynomials, the one-excitation sector can be solved analytically. This allows us to provide explicit sets of conditions on the polynomial parameters that guarantee the occurrence of PST across these spin chains.