Non-equilibrium steady states in the quantum XXZ spin chain

Abstract: We investigate the dynamics of a critical XXZ spin-1/2 chain prepared in an inhomogeneous initial state with different magnetizations on the left and right halves. We simulate the real-time evolution using the time-evolving block decimation (TEBD) method. We follow the front propagation by measuring the magnetization and entanglement entropy profiles, and we focus on the situation where the initial state is not fully polarized. At long times, as in the free fermion case (T. Antal et al. 1999), a large central region develops where correlations become time-independent and translation invariant. The shape and speed of the fronts is studied numerically and we evaluate the stationary current as a function of initial magnetic field and as a function of the anisotropy \Delta. We compare the results with the conductance of a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid, and with the exact free-fermion solution at \Delta=0. We also investigate the two-point correlations in the stationary region and find a good agreement with the "twisted" form obtained by J. Lancaster and A. Mitra (2010) using bosonization. Some deviations are nevertheless observed for strong currents.