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arXiv:2402.14788 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Expectation values of conserved charges in integrable quantum field theories out of thermal equilibrium

Michele Mazzoni, Riccardo Travaglino, Olalla A. Castro-Alvaredo

Published Feb 24, 2025• 1 citation
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Abstract

Abstract In this work we present a computation of the averages of conserved charge densities and currents of (1+1)-dimensional Integrable Quantum Field Theories in generalised Gibbs ensembles. Our approach is based on the quasi-particle description provided by the Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz combined with the principles of Generalised Hydrodynamics, and we focus on Non-Equilibrium Steady State averages. When considering the ultraviolet (i.e. high temperature) limit of such averages, we recover the famous result by Bernard and Doyon (2012) for the energy current and density in Conformal Field Theories, and we extend it to conserved quantities with spin s > 1. We show that their averages are proportional to T L s + 1 ± T R s + 1 , with TL , TR the temperatures of two asymptotic thermal reservoirs. The same power law is obtained when considering some non-thermal generalised Gibbs states. In Conformal Field Theory, the power law is a consequence of the transformation properties of conserved charge operators, while the proportionality coefficient depends on the spin of the operator and on the central charge of the theory. We present an exact analytic expression for this coefficient in the case of a massive free fermion. At equilibrium, proportionality of spin-s density averages to T s + 1 can be thought of as a generalisation of Stefan–Boltzmann’s law, which states that the energy per unit surface area radiated by a black body scales as T 4.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8121/adb9ab

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Abstract In this work we present a computation of the averages of conserved charge densities and currents of (1+1)-dimensional Integrable Quantum Field Theories in generalised Gibbs ensembles. Our approach is based on the quasi-particle description provided by the Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz combined with the principles of Generalised Hydrodynamics, and we focus on Non-Equilibrium Steady State averages. When considering the ultraviolet (i.e. high temperature) limit of such averages, we recover the famous result by Bernard and Doyon (2012) for the energy current and density in Conformal Field Theories, and we extend it to conserved quantities with spin s > 1. We show that their averages are proportional to T L s + 1 ± T R s + 1 , with TL , TR the temperatures of two asymptotic thermal reservoirs. The same power law is obtained when considering some non-thermal generalised Gibbs states. In Conformal Field Theory, the power law is a consequence of the transformation properties of conserved charge operators, while the proportionality coefficient depends on the spin of the operator and on the central charge of the theory. We present an exact analytic expression for this coefficient in the case of a massive free fermion. At equilibrium, proportionality of spin-s density averages to T s + 1 can be thought of as a generalisation of Stefan–Boltzmann’s law, which states that the energy per unit surface area radiated by a black body scales as T 4.
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Generalised hydrodynamics of TT‾ \textrm{T}\overline{\textrm{T}} TT-deformed integrable quantum field theories
A bstract In this paper we evaluate the averages of conserved densities and currents associated to charges of generic spin in (1+1)-dimensional massive integrable Quantum Field Theories perturbed by the irrelevant TT‾ \textrm{T}\overline{\textrm{T}} TT T T ¯ operator. By making use of the Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz approach and of the theory of Generalised Hydrodynamics, we study the non-equilibrium steady state averages of conserved densities and currents in a partitioning protocol. We show that, in particular limits, averages can be evaluated exactly in terms of quantities known from the unperturbed theory. In the massless limit we recover known results for the energy and momentum currents and generalise those to any higher spin conserved quantities. We extend some of our results to perturbations of the generalised TT‾ \textrm{T}\overline{\textrm{T}} TT T T ¯ type. For the massive free fermion theory, we find an analytic expression for the effective inverse temperature after at TT‾ \textrm{T}\overline{\textrm{T}} TT T T ¯ perturbation in terms of the bare inverse temperature by making use of Lambert’s W function.
We evaluate the exact energy current and scaled cumulant generating function (related to the large-deviation function) in non-equilibrium steady states with energy flow, in any integrable model of relativistic quantum field theory (IQFT) with diagonal scattering. Our derivations are based on various recent results of D. Bernard and B. Doyon. The steady states are built by connecting homogeneously two infinite halves of the system thermalized at different temperatures Tl, Tr, and waiting for a long time. We evaluate the current J(Tl, Tr) using the exact QFT density matrix describing these non-equilibrium steady states and using Al.B. Zamolodchikov’s method of the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz (TBA). The scaled cumulant generating function is obtained from the extended fluctuation relations which hold in integrable models. We verify our formula in particular by showing that the conformal field theory (CFT) result is obtained in the high-temperature limit. We analyze numerically our non-equilibrium steady-state TBA equations for three models: the sinh-Gordon model, the roaming trajectories model, and the sine-Gordon model at a particular reflectionless point. Based on the numerics, we conjecture that an infinite family of non-equilibrium c-functions, associated to the scaled cumulants, can be defined, which we interpret physically. We study the full scaled distribution function and find that it can be described by a set of independent Poisson processes. Finally, we show that the “additivity ” property of the current, which is known to hold in CFT and was proposed to hold more generally, does not hold in general IQFT, that is J(Tl, Tr) is not of the form f(Tl)−f(Tr).
We evaluate the exact energy current and scaled cumulant generating function (related to the large-deviation function) in non-equilibrium steady states with energy flow, in any integrable model of relativistic quantum field theory (IQFT) with diagonal scattering. Our derivations are based on various recent results of D. Bernard and B. Doyon. The steady states are built by connecting homogeneously two infinite halves of the system thermalized at different temperatures TlT_lTl​, TrT_rTr​, and waiting for a long time. We evaluate the current J(Tl,Tr)J(T_l,T_r)J(Tl​,Tr​) using the exact QFT density matrix describing these non-equilibrium steady states and using Al.B. Zamolodchikov's method of the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz (TBA). The scaled cumulant generating function is obtained from the extended fluctuation relations which hold in integrable models. We verify our formula in particular by showing that the conformal field theory (CFT) result is obtained in the high-temperature limit. We analyze numerically our non-equilibrium steady-state TBA equations for three models: the sinh-Gordon model, the roaming trajectories model, and the sine-Gordon model at a particular reflectionless point. Based on the numerics, we conjecture that an infinite family of non-equilibrium ccc-functions, associated to the scaled cumulants, can be defined, which we interpret physically. We study the full scaled distribution function and find that it can be described by a set of independent Poisson processes. Finally, we show that the "additivity" property of the current, which is known to hold in CFT and was proposed to hold more generally, does not hold in general IQFT, that is J(Tl,Tr)J(T_l,T_r)J(Tl​,Tr​) is not of the form f(Tl)−f(Tr)f(T_l)-f(T_r)f(Tl​)−f(Tr​).
Infinite-dimensional conformal symmetry in two dimensions leads to integrability of 2D conformal field theories (CFTs) by giving rise to an infinite tower of local conserved quantum Korteweg-de Vries (qKdV) charges in involution. We discuss how the presence of conserved charges constrains equilibration in 2D CFTs. We propose that in the thermodynamic limit large central charge 2D CFTs satisfy generalized eigenstate thermalization, with the values of qKdV charges forming a complete set of thermodynamically relevant quantities, which unambiguously determine expectation values of all local observables from the vacuum family. Equivalence of ensembles further provides that local properties of an eigenstate can be described by the generalized Gibbs ensemble that includes only qKdV charges. In the case of a general initial state, upon equilibration, the emerging generalized Gibbs ensemble will necessarily include negative chemical potentials and holographically will be described by a quasiclassical black hole with quantum soft hair.
We study the long time behaviour of local observables following a quantum quench in 1+1 dimensional conformal field theories possessing additional conserved charges besides the energy. We show that the expectation value of an arbitrary string of local ob-servables supported on a finite interval exponentially approaches an equilibrium value. The equilibrium is characterized by a temperature and chemical potentials defined in terms of the quenched state. For an infinite number of commuting conserved charges, the equilibrium ensemble is a generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE). We compute the thermalization rate in a systematic perturbation in the chemical potentials, using a new technique to sum over an infinite number of Feynman diagrams. The above technique also allows us to compute relaxation times for thermal Green’s functions in the presence of an arbitrary number of chemical potentials. In the context of a higher spin (hs[λ]) holography, the partition function of the final equilibrium GGE is known to agree with that of a higher spin black hole. The thermalization rate from the CFT computed in our paper agrees with the quasinormal frequency of a scalar field in this black hole.