Form factors in equilibrium and non-equilibrium mixed states of the Ising model

TL;DR

This paper develops a framework for form factors in mixed states of the Ising model, providing exact expressions and expansions useful for analyzing correlation functions in equilibrium and non-equilibrium scenarios.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to define and compute mixed-state form factors in the Ising model, extending the theory beyond thermal states to non-equilibrium conditions.

Findings

Exact mixed-state form factors for order and disorder fields derived.

Full form factor expansion for mixed-state correlation functions established.

Non-equilibrium form factors exhibit branch cuts and oscillatory behavior in large-distance limits.

Abstract

Using the "Liouville space'' (the space of operators) of the massive Ising model of quantum field theory, there is a natural definition of form factors in any mixed state. These generalize the usual form factors, and are building blocks for mixed-state correlation functions. We study the cases of mixed states that are diagonal in the asymptotic particle basis, and obtain exact expressions for all mixed-state form factors of order and disorder fields. We use novel techniques based on deriving and solving a system of nonlinear functional differential equations. We then write down the full form factor expansion for mixed-state correlation functions of these fields. Under weak analytic conditions on the eigenvalues of the density matrix, this is an exact large-distance expansion. The form factors agree with the known finite-temperature form factors when the mixed state is specialized to a thermal Gibbs ensemble. Our results can be used to analyze correlation functions in generalized Gibbs ensembles (which occur after quantum quenches). Applying this to the density matrix for non-equilibrium steady states with energy flows, we observe that non-equilibrium form factors have branch cuts in rapidity space. We verify that this is in agreement with a non-equilibrium generalization of the KMS relations, and we conjecture that the leading large-distance behavior of order and disorder non-equilibrium correlation functions contains oscillations in the log of the distance between the fields.