RELAXATION IN QUANTUM SPIN CHAINS

Dragi Karevski (Personal webpage)

The aim of this lecture is to give a pedagogical introduction to the exact equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties of free fermionic quantum spin chains. In a first part we present in full details the canonical diagonalisation procedure and review quickly the equilibrium dynamical properties. The phase diagram is analysed and possible phase transitions are discussed.

The remaining part is devoted to the nonequilibrium dynamical behaviour of such quantum chains relaxing from a nonequilibrium pure initial state. In particular, a special attention is made on the relaxation of transverse magnetization. Two-time linear response functions and correlation functions are also considered, giving insights on the nature of the final nonequilibrium stationary state. The possibility of aging is also discussed