Quench dynamics and relaxation in isolated integrable quantum spin chains. (24th June 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Essler, Fabian H L; Fagotti, Maurizio
• Is Part Of: Journal of statistical mechanics. (2016:Jun.)
• Publication Date: 2016-06-24
• Subjects: Statistical mechanics -- Periodicals; Mechanics -- Statistical methods -- Periodicals; 530.1305
• DOI: 10.1088/1742-5468/2016/06/064002
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1742-5468

Abstract

Abstract: We review the dynamics after quantum quenches in integrable quantum spin chains. We give a pedagogical introduction to relaxation in isolated quantum systems, and discuss the description of the steady state by (generalized) Gibbs ensembles. We then turn to general features in the time evolution of local observables after the quench, using a simple model of free fermions as an example. In the second part we present an overview of recent progress in describing quench dynamics in two key paradigms for quantum integrable models, the transverse field Ising chain and the anisotropic spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain.