Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2103.13371 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Interplay between transport and quantum coherences in free fermionic systems

Tony Jin, Tristan Gautié, Alexandre Krajenbrink, Paola Ruggiero, Takato Yoshimura

Published Aug 25, 2021• 17 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract We study the quench dynamics in free fermionic systems in the prototypical bipartitioning protocol obtained by joining two semi-infinite subsystems prepared in different states, aiming at understanding the interplay between quantum coherences in space in the initial state and transport properties. Our findings reveal that, under reasonable assumptions, the more correlated the initial state, the slower the transport is. Such statement is first discussed at qualitative level, and then made quantitative by introducing proper measures of correlations and transport ‘speed’. Moreover, it is supported for fermions on a lattice by an exact solution starting from specific initial conditions, and in the continuous case by the explicit solution for a wider class of physically relevant initial states. In particular, for this class of states, we identify a function, that we dub transition map , which takes the value of the stationary current as input and gives the value of correlation as output, in a protocol-independent way. As an aside technical result, in the discrete case, we give an expression of the full counting statistics in terms of a continuous kernel for a general correlated domain wall initial state, thus extending the recent results in Moriya et al (2019 J. Stat. Mech. 2019 063105) on the one-dimensional XX spin chain.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8121/ac20ef

Related papers

On Landauer–Büttiker formalism from a quantum quench

Oleksandr Gamayun, Yu Zhuravlev, N. Z. Iorgov

Abstract We study transport in the free fermionic one-dimensional systems subjected to arbitrary local potentials. The bias needed for the transport is modeled by the initial highly non-equilibrium distribution where only half of the system is populated. Additionally to that, the local potential is also suddenly changed when the transport starts. For such a quench protocol we compute the full counting statistics (FCS) of the number of particles in the initially empty part. In the thermodynamic limit, the FCS can be expressed via the Fredholm determinant with the kernel depending on the scattering data and Jost solutions of the pre-quench and the post-quench potentials. We discuss the large-time asymptotic behavior of the obtained determinant and observe that if two or more bound states are present in the spectrum of the post-quench potential the information about the initial state manifests itself in the persistent oscillations of the FCS. On the contrary, when there are no bound states the asymptotic behavior of the FCS is determined solely by the scattering data of the post-quench potential, which for the current (the first moment) is given by the Landauer–Büttiker formalism. The information about the initial state can be observed only in the transient dynamics.

arXiv:2211.08330•Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical•Apr 5, 2023•7 citations

Ballistic front dynamics after joining two semi-infinite quantum Ising chains

Gabriele Perfetto, Andrea Gambassi

We consider two semi-infinite quantum Ising chains initially at thermal equilibrium at two different temperatures and subsequently joined by an interaction between their end points. Transport properties such as the heat current are determined by the dynamics of the left- and right-moving fermionic quasiparticles which characterize the ensuing unitary dynamics. Within the so-called semiclassical space-time scaling limit we extend known results by determining the full space and time dependence of the density and current of energy and of fermionic quasiparticles. Upon approaching the edge of the propagating front, these quantities as well as the two-point correlation function display qualitatively different behaviors depending on the transverse field of the chain being critical or not. While in the latter case corrections to the leading behavior are described, as expected, by the Airy kernel, in the former a novel scaling form emerges with universal features.

arXiv:1704.03437•Physical review. E•Jul 19, 2017•71 citations

Quench dynamics of entanglement entropy under projective charge measurements: the free fermion case

Riccardo Travaglino, Colin Rylands, Pasquale Calabrese

Abstract We consider the effect of projective measurements on the quench dynamics of the bipartite entanglement entropy in one-dimensional free fermionic systems. In our protocol, we consider projective measurements of a U (1) conserved charge, the particle number, on some large subsystem, and study the entanglement entropies between the same subsystem and its complement. We compare the dynamics emanating from two classes of initial states, one which is an eigenstate of the charge and another which is not. Moreover, we consider the effects of a single measurement as well as multiple which are periodically performed. Using the quasiparticle picture, we obtain analytic expressions for the behaviour of the entanglement, which admit a transparent physical interpretation. In general, we find that measurements introduce two distinct types of corrections to the entanglement, which can be interpreted separately as classical and quantum contributions. The classical contribution is independent of the measurement outcome and scales logarithmically with the variance of the charge distribution. In contrast, the quantum contribution depends on the specific measurement outcome and can be significant for individual realisations; however, it becomes negligible when averaged over all possible outcomes. Our expressions reduce to previously known results for symmetry-resolved entanglement and full counting statistics in some relevant limits, and are confirmed by an exact calculation performed on the Néel initial state.

arXiv:2508.05588•Journal of Statistical Mechanics Theory and Experiment•Dec 1, 2025•3 citations

Real-time evolution of quenched quantum systems

Michael Möckel

The study of the interplay between interaction-induced correlations and nonequilibrium initial conditions in many-body systems has recently attracted a lot of attention. New experimental techniques provide high control over many-body systems and systematic access to their nonequilibrium regime. In many systems the nonequilibrium properties of a Fermi liquid can be relevant. A first approach to their understanding is the main content of this thesis. At the beginning, nonequilibrium phenomena, Landau's theory of a Fermi liquid, the Hubbard model, time evolution in quantum mechanics, related experiments, and the flow equation method are reviewed. The key observation of this thesis, namely a characteristic mismatch of expectation values in equilibrium and nonequilibrium, is first illustrated for the squeezed oscillator. For this one-particle model Hamiltonian the perturbative approach can be compared with the exact solution and it is shown that the mismatch holds even beyond perturbation theory. Afterwards these observations are generalized to a larger class of one-particle models. Then the nonequilibrium behavior of a Fermi liquid is examined by analyzing the Fermi liquid phase of the Hubbard model in more than one dimension. After a sudden switch-on of a weak two-particle interaction to the noninteracting Fermi gas the relaxation of the many-body system is observed. For this purpose, the flow equation transformation is implemented for the Hubbard Hamiltonian. Then the discussion of the momentum distribution function and of the kinetic energy displays a three-step relaxation behavior of the Fermi liquid from the initial perturbation until thermalization is reached. Firstly, the sudden switch inserts excitation energy into the system which drives the following dynamics. Then a rapid initial build-up of correlations is caused by initial dephasing and leads to the establishment of a quasiparticle picture. By that the system enters into a quasi-stationary state which can be long-lasting for weak interaction. This state shows prethermalization of the kinetic energy which already has relaxed to its final values. However, the momentum distribution still resembles a zero temperature Fermi liquid. Its later relaxation on a second time scale is caused by a residual two-particle interaction which allows for scattering processes and can be described by a quantum Boltzmann equation. The physical origin of this delayed relaxation can be traced back to an interplay of translational invariance of the Hubbard model and the Pauli principle for fermions; together they restrict the phase space for scattering events. Comparing with similar work I conjecture on the generic nature of the findings made for the quenched Fermi liquid in other many-body systems. Finally I point out to the potential relevance of the delayed relaxation for the observation of further nonequilibrium phenomena, for instance in BCS systems. In order to extend the study of sudden switching to arbitrary switching processes the calculation is repeated using the Keldysh perturbation theory. First evaluations for a linear increase of the interaction strength are given. Extensions of this work are suggested and may motivate further research.

•Jan 1, 2009•5 citations

Stationary states in a free fermionic chain from the quench action method

Andrea De Luca, Gabriele Martelloni, Jacopo Viti

We employ the quench action method for a recently considered geometrical quantum quench: two free fermionic chains initially at different temperatures are joined together in the middle and let evolve unitarily with a translation invariant Hamiltonian. We show that two different stationary regimes are reached at long times, depending on the interplay between the observation time scale $T$ and the total length $L$ of the system. We show the emergence of a nonequilibrium steady state supporting an energy current for observation time $T$ much smaller than the system size $L$. We then identify a longer time scale for which thermalization occurs in a generalized Gibbs ensemble.

arXiv:1409.8482•Physical Review A•Feb 24, 2015•80 citations

Quantum transport in strongly correlated Fermi gases

Tilman Enss

Transport in strongly correlated fermions cannot be understood by fermionic quasiparticles alone. We present a theoretical framework for quantum transport that incorporates strong local correlations of fermion pairs. These contact correlations add essential contributions to viscous, thermal and sound transport coefficients. The bulk viscosity, in particular, receives its dominant contribution from pair excitations. Moreover, it can be measured elegantly by observing the response to a time-dependent scattering length even when the fluid is not moving. Rapid changes of the scattering length drive the system far out of local equilibrium, and we show how it relaxes back to equilibrium following a hydrodynamic attractor before a Navier–Stokes description becomes valid. This paper summarizes a talk given at the Symposium “Open questions in the quantum many-body problem” at the Institut Henry Poincaré, Paris, in July 2024.

arXiv:2411.13165•Comptes Rendus Physique•Feb 11, 2025•1 citation
Abstract We study the quench dynamics in free fermionic systems in the prototypical bipartitioning protocol obtained by joining two semi-infinite subsystems prepared in different states, aiming at understanding the interplay between quantum coherences in space in the initial state and transport properties. Our findings reveal that, under reasonable assumptions, the more correlated the initial state, the slower the transport is. Such statement is first discussed at qualitative level, and then made quantitative by introducing proper measures of correlations and transport ‘speed’. Moreover, it is supported for fermions on a lattice by an exact solution starting from specific initial conditions, and in the continuous case by the explicit solution for a wider class of physically relevant initial states. In particular, for this class of states, we identify a function, that we dub transition map , which takes the value of the stationary current as input and gives the value of correlation as output, in a protocol-independent way. As an aside technical result, in the discrete case, we give an expression of the full counting statistics in terms of a continuous kernel for a general correlated domain wall initial state, thus extending the recent results in Moriya et al (2019 J. Stat. Mech. 2019 063105) on the one-dimensional XX spin chain.
Abstract We study transport in the free fermionic one-dimensional systems subjected to arbitrary local potentials. The bias needed for the transport is modeled by the initial highly non-equilibrium distribution where only half of the system is populated. Additionally to that, the local potential is also suddenly changed when the transport starts. For such a quench protocol we compute the full counting statistics (FCS) of the number of particles in the initially empty part. In the thermodynamic limit, the FCS can be expressed via the Fredholm determinant with the kernel depending on the scattering data and Jost solutions of the pre-quench and the post-quench potentials. We discuss the large-time asymptotic behavior of the obtained determinant and observe that if two or more bound states are present in the spectrum of the post-quench potential the information about the initial state manifests itself in the persistent oscillations of the FCS. On the contrary, when there are no bound states the asymptotic behavior of the FCS is determined solely by the scattering data of the post-quench potential, which for the current (the first moment) is given by the Landauer–Büttiker formalism. The information about the initial state can be observed only in the transient dynamics.
We consider two semi-infinite quantum Ising chains initially at thermal equilibrium at two different temperatures and subsequently joined by an interaction between their end points. Transport properties such as the heat current are determined by the dynamics of the left- and right-moving fermionic quasiparticles which characterize the ensuing unitary dynamics. Within the so-called semiclassical space-time scaling limit we extend known results by determining the full space and time dependence of the density and current of energy and of fermionic quasiparticles. Upon approaching the edge of the propagating front, these quantities as well as the two-point correlation function display qualitatively different behaviors depending on the transverse field of the chain being critical or not. While in the latter case corrections to the leading behavior are described, as expected, by the Airy kernel, in the former a novel scaling form emerges with universal features.
Abstract We consider the effect of projective measurements on the quench dynamics of the bipartite entanglement entropy in one-dimensional free fermionic systems. In our protocol, we consider projective measurements of a U (1) conserved charge, the particle number, on some large subsystem, and study the entanglement entropies between the same subsystem and its complement. We compare the dynamics emanating from two classes of initial states, one which is an eigenstate of the charge and another which is not. Moreover, we consider the effects of a single measurement as well as multiple which are periodically performed. Using the quasiparticle picture, we obtain analytic expressions for the behaviour of the entanglement, which admit a transparent physical interpretation. In general, we find that measurements introduce two distinct types of corrections to the entanglement, which can be interpreted separately as classical and quantum contributions. The classical contribution is independent of the measurement outcome and scales logarithmically with the variance of the charge distribution. In contrast, the quantum contribution depends on the specific measurement outcome and can be significant for individual realisations; however, it becomes negligible when averaged over all possible outcomes. Our expressions reduce to previously known results for symmetry-resolved entanglement and full counting statistics in some relevant limits, and are confirmed by an exact calculation performed on the Néel initial state.
The study of the interplay between interaction-induced correlations and nonequilibrium initial conditions in many-body systems has recently attracted a lot of attention. New experimental techniques provide high control over many-body systems and systematic access to their nonequilibrium regime. In many systems the nonequilibrium properties of a Fermi liquid can be relevant. A first approach to their understanding is the main content of this thesis. At the beginning, nonequilibrium phenomena, Landau's theory of a Fermi liquid, the Hubbard model, time evolution in quantum mechanics, related experiments, and the flow equation method are reviewed. The key observation of this thesis, namely a characteristic mismatch of expectation values in equilibrium and nonequilibrium, is first illustrated for the squeezed oscillator. For this one-particle model Hamiltonian the perturbative approach can be compared with the exact solution and it is shown that the mismatch holds even beyond perturbation theory. Afterwards these observations are generalized to a larger class of one-particle models. Then the nonequilibrium behavior of a Fermi liquid is examined by analyzing the Fermi liquid phase of the Hubbard model in more than one dimension. After a sudden switch-on of a weak two-particle interaction to the noninteracting Fermi gas the relaxation of the many-body system is observed. For this purpose, the flow equation transformation is implemented for the Hubbard Hamiltonian. Then the discussion of the momentum distribution function and of the kinetic energy displays a three-step relaxation behavior of the Fermi liquid from the initial perturbation until thermalization is reached. Firstly, the sudden switch inserts excitation energy into the system which drives the following dynamics. Then a rapid initial build-up of correlations is caused by initial dephasing and leads to the establishment of a quasiparticle picture. By that the system enters into a quasi-stationary state which can be long-lasting for weak interaction. This state shows prethermalization of the kinetic energy which already has relaxed to its final values. However, the momentum distribution still resembles a zero temperature Fermi liquid. Its later relaxation on a second time scale is caused by a residual two-particle interaction which allows for scattering processes and can be described by a quantum Boltzmann equation. The physical origin of this delayed relaxation can be traced back to an interplay of translational invariance of the Hubbard model and the Pauli principle for fermions; together they restrict the phase space for scattering events. Comparing with similar work I conjecture on the generic nature of the findings made for the quenched Fermi liquid in other many-body systems. Finally I point out to the potential relevance of the delayed relaxation for the observation of further nonequilibrium phenomena, for instance in BCS systems. In order to extend the study of sudden switching to arbitrary switching processes the calculation is repeated using the Keldysh perturbation theory. First evaluations for a linear increase of the interaction strength are given. Extensions of this work are suggested and may motivate further research.
We employ the quench action method for a recently considered geometrical quantum quench: two free fermionic chains initially at different temperatures are joined together in the middle and let evolve unitarily with a translation invariant Hamiltonian. We show that two different stationary regimes are reached at long times, depending on the interplay between the observation time scale TTT and the total length LLL of the system. We show the emergence of a nonequilibrium steady state supporting an energy current for observation time TTT much smaller than the system size LLL. We then identify a longer time scale for which thermalization occurs in a generalized Gibbs ensemble.
Transport in strongly correlated fermions cannot be understood by fermionic quasiparticles alone. We present a theoretical framework for quantum transport that incorporates strong local correlations of fermion pairs. These contact correlations add essential contributions to viscous, thermal and sound transport coefficients. The bulk viscosity, in particular, receives its dominant contribution from pair excitations. Moreover, it can be measured elegantly by observing the response to a time-dependent scattering length even when the fluid is not moving. Rapid changes of the scattering length drive the system far out of local equilibrium, and we show how it relaxes back to equilibrium following a hydrodynamic attractor before a Navier–Stokes description becomes valid. This paper summarizes a talk given at the Symposium “Open questions in the quantum many-body problem” at the Institut Henry Poincaré, Paris, in July 2024.