State transfer in static and dynamic spin chains with disorder

TL;DR

This paper compares static and dynamic spin chain protocols for state transfer, revealing that static protocols are faster but more sensitive to disorder, while adiabatic methods are slower but more robust.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of static and adiabatic transfer protocols in disordered spin chains, highlighting their robustness and speed trade-offs.

Findings

Static protocols are faster but more sensitive to off-diagonal disorder.

Adiabatic protocols are slower but more robust against disorder.

Optimal static transfer is more affected by off-diagonal disorder than adiabatic transfer.

Abstract

We examine the speed and fidelity of several protocols for state or single excitation transfer in finite spin chains subject to diagonal and off-diagonal disorder. We find that, for a given chain length and maximal achievable inter-spin exchange (XY) coupling strength, the optimal static spin-coupling protocol, implementing the fastest state transfer between the two ends of the chain, is more susceptible to off-diagonal (XY coupling) disorder, as compared to a much slower but robust adiabatic transfer protocol with time-dependent coupling strengths.