Subsystem Evolution Speed as Indicator of Relaxation

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zhang, Jiaju, Rajabpour, M. A., Heyl, Markus, Khasseh, Reyhaneh
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866916799820333056
author Zhang, Jiaju
Rajabpour, M. A.
Heyl, Markus
Khasseh, Reyhaneh
author_facet Zhang, Jiaju
Rajabpour, M. A.
Heyl, Markus
Khasseh, Reyhaneh
contents In studying the time evolution of isolated many-body quantum systems, a key focus is determining whether the system undergoes relaxation and reaches a steady state at a given point in time. Traditional approaches often rely on specific local operators or a detailed understanding of the stationary state. In this letter, we introduce an alternative method that assesses relaxation directly from the time-dependent state by focusing on the evolution speed of the subsystem. The proposed indicator evaluates the rate of change in the reduced density matrix of the subsystem over time. We demonstrate that in systems reaching relaxation, as the overall system size increases, the evolution speed of sufficiently small yet still finite-sized subsystems notably diminishes. This leads to small fluctuations in the expectation values of operators, which is also consistent with the predictions made by the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. We apply this approach across various models, including the chaotic Ising chain, XXZ chains with and without many-body localization, and the transverse field Ising chain. Our results confirm the robustness and accuracy of subsystem evolution speed as a reliable indicator for relaxation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_17798
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Subsystem Evolution Speed as Indicator of Relaxation
Zhang, Jiaju
Rajabpour, M. A.
Heyl, Markus
Khasseh, Reyhaneh
Quantum Physics
Statistical Mechanics
Strongly Correlated Electrons
In studying the time evolution of isolated many-body quantum systems, a key focus is determining whether the system undergoes relaxation and reaches a steady state at a given point in time. Traditional approaches often rely on specific local operators or a detailed understanding of the stationary state. In this letter, we introduce an alternative method that assesses relaxation directly from the time-dependent state by focusing on the evolution speed of the subsystem. The proposed indicator evaluates the rate of change in the reduced density matrix of the subsystem over time. We demonstrate that in systems reaching relaxation, as the overall system size increases, the evolution speed of sufficiently small yet still finite-sized subsystems notably diminishes. This leads to small fluctuations in the expectation values of operators, which is also consistent with the predictions made by the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. We apply this approach across various models, including the chaotic Ising chain, XXZ chains with and without many-body localization, and the transverse field Ising chain. Our results confirm the robustness and accuracy of subsystem evolution speed as a reliable indicator for relaxation.
title Subsystem Evolution Speed as Indicator of Relaxation
topic Quantum Physics
Statistical Mechanics
Strongly Correlated Electrons
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.17798