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Thermodynamic Bethe ansatz for non-equilibrium steady states: exact energy current and fluctuations in integrable QFT

Olalla A. Castro-Alvaredo, Yixiong Chen, Benjamin Doyon, Marianne Hoogeveen

Published Aug 14, 2016• 23 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

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).

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Thermodynamic Bethe ansatz for non-equilibrium steady states: exact energy current and fluctuations in integrable QFT

Olalla Castro-Alvaredo, Yixiong Chen, Benjamin Doyon +1 more

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 $T_l$, $T_r$, and waiting for a long time. We evaluate the current $J(T_l,T_r)$ 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 $J(T_l,T_r)$ is not of the form $f(T_l)-f(T_r)$.

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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​).
We consider non-equilibrium quantum steady states in conformal field theory (CFT) on star-graph configurations, with a particular, simple connection condition at the vertex of the graph. These steady states occur after a large time as a result of initially thermalizing the legs of the graph at different temperatures, and carry energy flows. Using purely Virasoro algebraic calculations we evaluate the exact scaled cumulant generating function for these flows. We show that this function satisfies a generalization of the usual non-equilibrium fluctuation relations. This extends results by two of the authors to the case of more than two legs. It also provides an alternative derivation centered on Virasoro algebra operators rather than local fields, hence an alternative regularization scheme, thus confirming the validity and universality of the scaled cumulant generating function. Our derivation shows how the usual Virasoro algebra leads, in large volumes, to a continuous-index Virasoro algebra for which we develop diagrammatic principles, which may be of interest in other non-equilibrium contexts as well. Finally, our results shed light on the Poisson-process interpretation of the long-time energy transfer in CFT.
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.
We study the energy current and its fluctuations in quantum gapless 1d systems far from equilibrium modeled by conformal field theory, where two separated halves are prepared at distinct temperatures and glued together at a point contact. We prove that these systems converge towards steady states, and give a general description of such non-equilibrium steady states in terms of quantum field theory data. We compute the large deviation function, also called the full counting statistics, of energy transfer through the contact. These are universal and satisfy fluctuation relations. We provide a simple representation of these quantum fluctuations in terms of classical Poisson processes whose intensities are proportional to Boltzmann weights.
We set up a hydrodynamic description of the non-equilibrium dynamics of sine-Gordon quantum field theory for generic coupling. It is built upon an explicit form of the Bethe Ansatz description of general thermodynamic states, with the structure of the resulting coupled integral equations encoded in terms of graphical diagrams. The resulting framework is applied to derive results for the Drude weights of charge and energy. Quantities associated with the charge universally have fractal dependence on the coupling, which is notably absent from those associated with energy, a feature explained by the different roles played by reflective scattering in transporting these quantities. We then present far-from-equilibrium results, including explicit time evolution starting from bipartite initial states and dynamical correlation functions. Our framework can be applied to explore numerous other aspects of non-equilibrium dynamics, which opens the way to a wide array of theoretical studies and potential novel experimental predictions.
We investigate the sub-leading contributions to the free energy of Bethe Ansatz solvable (continuum) models with different boundary conditions. We show that the Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz approach is capable of providing the $ \mathcal{O}(1) $ pieces if both the density of states in rapidity space and the quadratic fluctuations around the saddle point solution to the TBA are properly taken into account. In relativistic boundary QFT the $ \mathcal{O}(1) $ contributions are directly related to the exact g-function. In this paper we provide an all-orders proof of the previous results of P. Dorey et al. on the g-function in both massive and massless models. In addition, we derive a new result for the g-function which applies to massless theories with arbitrary diagonal scattering in the bulk.