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arXiv:2303.16632 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Universality in the relaxation of spin helices under XXZ spin-chain dynamics

Vladislav Popkov, Marko Žnidarič, Xin Zhang

Published Jun 12, 2023• 6 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We describe the dynamics of a transverse spin-helix state---a product state with spatially rotating magnetization---under XXZ spin chain evolution. Due to experimental relevance we especially focus on magnetization dynamics. At long times the $U(1)$ symmetry of the Hamiltonian is restored, leading to the decay of transverse magnetization, which can be described as an exponential decay of a spatially harmonic profile. We show that the dependence of the short- and intermediate-time decay timescale, which in principle depends on all different parameters, like the wave vector of the initial helix, the anisotropy, etc., can be described well by a single scaling function. We also briefly discuss the evolution of magnetization current.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.107.235408

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Long-lived spin-helix states facilitate the study of non-equilibrium dynamics in quantum magnets. We consider the decay of transverse spin-helices in antiferromagnetic spin-SSS XXZ chains with single-ion anisostropy. The spin-helix decay is observable in the time evolution of the local magnetization that we calculate numerically for the system in the thermodynamic limit using infinite time-evolving block decimation simulations. Although the single-ion anisotropy prevents helix states from being eigenstates of the Hamiltonian, they still can be long-lived for appropriately chosen wave numbers. In case of an easy-axis exchange anisotropy the single-ion anisotropy may even stabilize the helices. Within a spin-wave approximation, we obtain a condition giving an estimate for the most stable wave number QQQ that agrees qualitatively with our numerical results.
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We consider the time evolution after quantum quenches in the spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ Heisenberg XXZ quantum spin chain with Ising-type anisotropy. The time evolution of short-distance spin-spin correlation functions is studied by numerical tensor network techniques for a variety of initial states, including N\'eel and Majumdar-Ghosh states and the ground state of the XXZ chain at large values of the anisotropy. The various correlators appear to approach stationary values, which are found to be in good agreement with the results of exact calculations of stationary expectation values in appropriate generalized Gibbs ensembles. In particular, our analysis shows how symmetries of the post-quench Hamiltonian that are broken by particular initial states are restored at late times.
We propose a qubit basis composed of transverse spin helices with kinks. Unlike the usual computational basis, this chiral basis is well-suited for describing quantum states with nontrivial topology. Choosing appropriate parameters the operators of the transverse spin components, σ_{n}^{x} and σ_{n}^{y}, become diagonal in the chiral basis, which facilitates the study of problems focused on transverse spin components. As an application, we study the temporal decay of the transverse polarization of a spin helix in the XX model that has been measured in recent cold atom experiments. We obtain an explicit universal function describing the relaxation of helices of arbitrary wavelength.
An important step towards a comprehensive understanding of far-from-equilibrium dynamics of quantum many-body systems is the identification of unifying features that are independent of microscopic details of the system. We experimentally observe such robust features in the magnetization relaxation dynamics of disordered Heisenberg XX, XXZ, and Ising Hamiltonians. We realize these Heisenberg spin models with tunable anisotropy parameter and power-law interactions in an ensemble of Rydberg atoms by encoding the spin in suitable Rydberg state combinations. We consistently observe stretched-exponential relaxation of magnetization for all considered spin models, collapsing onto a single curve after appropriate rescaling of time. This robust short-time relaxation behavior is explained by a perturbative treatment that exploits the strong disorder in pairwise couplings, which leads to a description in terms of approximately independent pairs of spins. In numerical simulations of small systems, we show that these pairs of spins constitute approximate local integrals of motion, which remain at least partially conserved on a timescale exceeding the duration of the relaxation dynamics of the magnetization. Published by the American Physical Society 2024