Magnetization transport in spin ladders and next-nearest-neighbor chains

Abstract: We study magnetization transport at high temperatures in several spin ladder systems as well as in next-nearest-neighbor coupled spin chains. In the integrable ladder considered we analytically show that the transport is ballistic in sectors with nonzero average magnetization, while numerical simulations of a nonequilibrium stationary setting indicate an anomalous transport in the zero magnetization (half-filling) sector. For other systems, isotropic Heisenberg ladder and spin chains, showing eigenlevel repulsion typical of quantum chaotic systems, numerical simulations indicate diffusive transport.