Relaxation and thermalization after a quantum quench: Why localization is important
- 4 February 2013
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review B
- Vol. 87 (6)
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.87.064201
Abstract
We study the unitary dynamics and the thermalization properties of free-fermion-like Hamiltonians after a sudden quantum quench, extending the results of S. Ziraldo et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 247205 (2012)]. With analytical and numerical arguments, we show that the existence of a stationary state and its description with a generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE) depend crucially on the observable considered (local versus extensive) and on the localization properties of the final Hamiltonian. We present results on two one-dimensional (1D) models, the disordered 1D fermionic chain with long-range hopping and the disordered Ising/ spin chain. We analytically prove that, while time averages of one-body operators are perfectly reproduced by GGE (even for finite-size systems, if time integrals are extended beyond revivals), time averages of many-body operators might show clear deviations from the GGE prediction when disorder-induced localization of the eigenstates is at play. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.87.064201 ©2013 American Physical Society
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