Quantum dynamics of impurity states in spin chains

Author(s)

Priscila Ferrari Silveira Rosa

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin
• Defense date: 2010-07-15

Examining board members

Guillermo Gerardo Cabrera Oyarzún; Alberto Sebastiao de Arruda; Pascoal José Giglio Pagliuso

• Advisor: Guillermo Gerardo Cabrera Oyarzún

Abstract

The description of many body systems quantum dynamics is a key ingredient for quantum computation. In the present project we study finite spin-1/2 chains dynamic properties in the presence of impurities or defects. We adopt the quantum Ising model with transverse field, of which it is possible to obtain the energy spectrum by exact calculations in the presence of one impurity. The system dynamics is driven exclusively by quantum fluctuations, whose origin is the Uncertainty Principle. We investigate the relaxation of initial states characterized by spatially inhomogeneous magnetization without any hypothesis about the proximity with the equilibrium state. Thus, the initial density matrix will be dependent of only one spatial coordinate. The investigation then is realized through the temporal evolution of the magnetization's Fourier components. Exact solutions, analytical and numerical, are obtained. One of the goals of this work consist in the search of slow relaxation processes. For the analytical cases (periodic and anti-periodic impurities) we observe oscillatory relaxations with a decay given by a power law in time (t/tQ)-vQ, where tQ and vQ are two free parameters and Q is the wave number associated to a Fourier component. There is a criticality in the exponent vQ: its value changes from 3/2 to 1/2 for certain critical values of Q. On the other hand, for the numerical cases (arbitrary impurities), the relaxation processes are distinct from the cases cited above. The initial state analyzed is a ferromagnetic direct product with only one flipped spin, near or far from the impurity. In this case, the temporal evolutions oscillate around a finite mean value and there is a large interval of Q values in which the modes do not extinguish completely (AU)