Boundary-driven magnetization transport in the spin-$1/2$ XXZ chain: Role of the system-bath coupling strength and timescales

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Main Authors: Kempa, Mariel, Kraft, Markus, Nandy, Sourav, Herbrych, Jacek, Wang, Jiaozi, Gemmer, Jochen, Steinigeweg, Robin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Kempa, Mariel
Kraft, Markus
Nandy, Sourav
Herbrych, Jacek
Wang, Jiaozi
Gemmer, Jochen
Steinigeweg, Robin
author_facet Kempa, Mariel
Kraft, Markus
Nandy, Sourav
Herbrych, Jacek
Wang, Jiaozi
Gemmer, Jochen
Steinigeweg, Robin
contents Understanding the transport properties of quantum many-body systems is a central challenge in condensed matter and statistical physics. Theoretical studies usually rely on two main approaches: Dynamics of linear-response functions in closed systems and boundary-driven dynamics governed by Markovian master equations for open systems. While the equivalence of their dynamical behavior has been explored in recent studies, a systematic comparison of the transport coefficients obtained from these two classes of approaches remains a largely open question. Here, we address this gap by comparing and contrasting the dc diffusion constant $\mathcal{D}_{\text{dc}}$ according to the two approaches, focusing on the specific example of magnetization transport in the spin-$1/2$ XXZ chain. Using exact numerical simulations for finite system sizes, we find (i) a clear mismatch between the two $\mathcal{D}_{\text{dc}}$ and (ii) a strong dependence of $\mathcal{D}_{\text{dc}}$ on the system-bath coupling strength for the open system, where neither (i) nor (ii) tend to vanish in the thermodynamic limit. These findings suggest limitations of the open-system approach to transport coefficients. To gain insight into the origin of (i) and (ii), we go beyond $\mathcal{D}_{\text{dc}}$ and analyze the full time dependence of the diffusion coefficient $D(t)$ in the open system. In this way, we find that both (i) and (ii) vanish up to a finite time scale. While this time scale gradually increases with system size and tends to be macroscopic in the thermodynamic limit, this increase is still slow compared to the increase of the time to reach the steady state, where (i) and (ii) do not vanish. This observation can be seen as a wrong, yet unavoidable order of limits of long times first and large system sizes afterwards.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_16528
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Boundary-driven magnetization transport in the spin-$1/2$ XXZ chain: Role of the system-bath coupling strength and timescales
Kempa, Mariel
Kraft, Markus
Nandy, Sourav
Herbrych, Jacek
Wang, Jiaozi
Gemmer, Jochen
Steinigeweg, Robin
Statistical Mechanics
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Quantum Physics
Understanding the transport properties of quantum many-body systems is a central challenge in condensed matter and statistical physics. Theoretical studies usually rely on two main approaches: Dynamics of linear-response functions in closed systems and boundary-driven dynamics governed by Markovian master equations for open systems. While the equivalence of their dynamical behavior has been explored in recent studies, a systematic comparison of the transport coefficients obtained from these two classes of approaches remains a largely open question. Here, we address this gap by comparing and contrasting the dc diffusion constant $\mathcal{D}_{\text{dc}}$ according to the two approaches, focusing on the specific example of magnetization transport in the spin-$1/2$ XXZ chain. Using exact numerical simulations for finite system sizes, we find (i) a clear mismatch between the two $\mathcal{D}_{\text{dc}}$ and (ii) a strong dependence of $\mathcal{D}_{\text{dc}}$ on the system-bath coupling strength for the open system, where neither (i) nor (ii) tend to vanish in the thermodynamic limit. These findings suggest limitations of the open-system approach to transport coefficients. To gain insight into the origin of (i) and (ii), we go beyond $\mathcal{D}_{\text{dc}}$ and analyze the full time dependence of the diffusion coefficient $D(t)$ in the open system. In this way, we find that both (i) and (ii) vanish up to a finite time scale. While this time scale gradually increases with system size and tends to be macroscopic in the thermodynamic limit, this increase is still slow compared to the increase of the time to reach the steady state, where (i) and (ii) do not vanish. This observation can be seen as a wrong, yet unavoidable order of limits of long times first and large system sizes afterwards.
title Boundary-driven magnetization transport in the spin-$1/2$ XXZ chain: Role of the system-bath coupling strength and timescales
topic Statistical Mechanics
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.16528