Quasi-conserved quantities in the perturbed XXX spin chain

Abstract: We consider the isotropic spin-1/2 Heisenberg spin chain weakly perturbed by a local translationally- and SU(2)-invariant perturbation. Starting from the local integrals of motion of the unperturbed model, we modify them in order to obtain quasi-conserved integrals of motion (charges) for the perturbed model. Such quasi-conserved quantities are believed to be responsible for the existence of the prethermalization phase at intermediate timescales. We find that for a sufficiently local perturbation only the first few integrals of motion can be promoted to the quasi-conserved charges, whereas higher-order integrals of motion do not survive.