The dynamic critical behavior of one-dimensional random spin systems in a field at zero temperature is investigated by a generalized transfer-matrix scaling technique. Three spin models are considered: Heisenberg in a longitudinal field, XY in a transverse field, and Ising in a transverse field, with either spin-glass or random-field disorder. Near the transition, i.e., for small values of the reduced field \ensuremath{\Delta}=(H-
Hc), where
Hc is the critical field, one finds that the dispersion relation for the low-frequency \ensuremath{\omega}, small-wave-vector k spin-wave excitations takes the scaling form \ensuremath{\omega}=
kzf(\ensuremath{\Delta}/
kcphi), and exact results are given for the dynamic exponent z and crossover exponent cphi. This form contains a crossover of the frequency \ensuremath{\omega} between two different asymptotic behaviors:
kz for \ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\ll}
kcphi and ${h}^{\ensuremath{\delta}}$ for \ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\gg}
kcphi, where the field exponent is \ensuremath{\delta}=z/cphi. In the case of the Heisenberg systems the spin-glass disorder gives rise to the nontrivial dynamic exponent z=(3/2, whereas in the random-field case it is the exponent associated to the field that becomes nontrivial, taking the value (4/3. For the transverse XY systems the random-field disorder implies nontrivial values for both the dynamic and field exponents, (3/2 and (3/4, respectively, whereas the spin-glass disorder does not affect the dynamics of the system, which behaves like a pure transverse XY ferromagnet. Finally, for the transverse Ising systems neither the random field nor the spin-glass disorder affects the dynamics, which is the same as for a pure transverse Ising ferromagnet.
The two-point connected correlation function, or wavevector-dependent susceptibility, of the ferromagnetic Ising chain in a random field is calculated exactly at any temperature, for a two-parameter family of diluted symmetric exponential distributions of the magnetic fields. Thermodynamic properties of this model have been derived in a previous work by the authors. Besides the correlation function itself, the solution provides exact results for the (usual) susceptibility, the correlation length and the Edwards-Anderson parameter. The low-temperature regime is examined in full detail: the authors obtain in closed form the limit value at zero temperature of various quantities, and the first correction to this limit, which behaves linearly with temperature. The correlation length is discontinuous at zero temperature. They also derive the scaling form of the correlation function for small p, where the dilution p is the probability for a spin to be subjected to a non-zero random field. Even in this limit, the correlation function is more complicated than the simple Lorentzian predicted, e.g., by mean-field theory.