Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: We study the energy transport in a system of two half-infinite XXZ chains initially kept separated at different temperatures, and later connected and let free to evolve unitarily. By changing independently the parameters of the two halves, we highlight, through bosonization and time-dependent matrix-product-state simulations, the different contributions of low-lying bosonic modes and of fermionic quasiparticles to the energy transport. In the simulations we also observe that the energy current reaches a finite value which only slowly decays to zero. The general picture that emerges is the following. Since integrability is only locally broken in this model, a preequilibration behavior may appear. In particular, when the sound velocities of the bosonic modes of the two halves match, the low-temperature energy current is almost stationary and described by a formula with a nonuniversal prefactor interpreted as a transmission coefficient. Thermalization, characterized by the absence of any energy flow, occurs only on longer time scales which are not accessible with our numerics.
Institutions: University of California, Santa Barbara, Scuola Normale Superiore, Istituto Nanoscienze, National Enterprise for NanoScience and NanoTechnology, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Université Paris-Sud, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Paris-Saclay, Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, École Normale Supérieure - PSL, The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)
Language: English
Topic: Quantum many-body systems
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: National Science Foundation, Scuola Normale Superiore, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca, Laboratoire d’excellence Physique Atomes Lumière Matière, University of California, Santa Barbara, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara
Awards: ENS- International Center for Fundamental Physics and its interfaces, G1734940047, G258938352, G2625427680, Paris Sciences et Lettres, Physics: Atoms, Light, Matter, G392606314, G4190806336, G4433229824, G457735187, G471331628, G4773563968, G5452052347, G603814699, G6759105742, G6771358743, G7126973739, G7240651115, G7368600059, G782245399, G7917003928
OpenAlex ID: W2285292793