Dissipative dynamics in isolated quantum spin chains after a local quench

Abstract

We provide numerical evidence that after a local quench in an isolated infinite quantum spin chain, the quantum state locally relaxes to the ground state of the post-quenched Hamiltonian, i.e. dissipates. This is a consequence of the unitary quantum dynamics. A mechanism similar to the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis is shown to be responsible for the dissipation observed. We also demonstrate that integrability obstructs dissipation. The numerical simulations are done directly in the thermodynamic limit with a time-evolution algorithm based on matrix product states. The area law of entanglement entropy is observed to hold after the local quench. As a result, the simulations can be performed for long times with small bond dimensions. Various local quenches on the Ising chain and the three-state Potts chain are studied.

References in corpus (13)

• Chaos and Quantum Thermalization
• Thermalization and its mechanism for generic isolated quantum systems
• Area laws for the entanglement entropy - a review
• An Area Law for One Dimensional Quantum Systems
• Time-dependent variational principle for quantum lattices
• Unifying time evolution and optimization with matrix product states
• Classical simulation of infinite-size quantum lattice systems in two spatial dimensions
• Ballistic spreading of entanglement in a diffusive nonintegrable system
• Entropy scaling and simulability by Matrix Product States
• Bethe-Boltzmann Hydrodynamics and Spin Transport in the XXZ Chain
• Finite Temperature and Dynamical Properties of the Random Transverse-Field Ising Spin Chain
• Variational Matrix Product Ansatz for Nonuniform Dynamics in the Thermodynamic Limit
• Time-dependent variational principle of mixed matrix product states in the thermodynamic limit