The spin-
1/2 quantum Ising chain in a transverse random magnetic field is studied by means of the density-matrix renormalization group. The system evolves from an ordered to a paramagnetic state as the amplitude of the random field is increased. The dependence of the magnetization on a uniform magnetic field in the
z direction and the spontaneous magnetization as a function of the amplitude of the transverse random magnetic field are determined. The behavior of the spin-spin correlation function both above and at criticality is studied. The scaling laws for magnetization and correlation functions are tested against previous numerical and renormalization-group results.
We study the dynamical properties of the random transverse-field Ising chain at criticality using a mapping to free fermions with which we can obtain numerically exact results for system sizes L as large as 256. The probability distribution of the local imaginary time correlation function $S(\ensuremath{\tau})$ is investigated and found to be simply a function of $\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\equiv}\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{ln}S(\ensuremath{\tau})/\mathrm{ln}\ensuremath{\tau}.$ This scaling behavior implies that the typical correlation function decays algebraically, ${S}_{\mathrm{typ}}(\ensuremath{\tau})\ensuremath{\sim}{\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{\mathrm{typ}}},$ where the exponent ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{\mathrm{typ}}$ is determined from $P(\ensuremath{\alpha}),$ the distribution of $\ensuremath{\alpha}.$ The precise value for ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{\mathrm{typ}}$ depends on exactly how the ``typical'' correlation function is defined. The form of $P(\ensuremath{\alpha})$ for small $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ gives a contribution to the average correlation function ${S}_{\mathrm{av}}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ namely, ${S}_{\mathrm{av}}(\ensuremath{\tau})\ensuremath{\sim}(\mathrm{ln}\ensuremath{\tau}{)}^{\ensuremath{-}{2x}_{m}},$ where
xm is the bulk magnetization exponent, which was reported recently in Europhys. Lett. 39, 135 (1997). These results represent a type of ``multiscaling'' different from the well-known ``multifractal'' behavior.