Effective temperature from fluctuation-dissipation theorem in systems with bipartite eigenmode entanglement

TL;DR

This paper investigates how effective temperatures derived from the fluctuation-dissipation theorem behave after a quantum quench in systems with bipartite entanglement, revealing approximate thermalization but not strict equilibrium.

Contribution

It demonstrates that in systems with bipartite entanglement, effective temperatures can approach a constant value similar to the thermal temperature, highlighting partial thermalization after a quantum quench.

Findings

Effective temperatures tend to a constant value for large initial entanglement.

Residual frequency dependence indicates incomplete thermalization.

Observable-dependent differences persist in the long-time regime.

Abstract

In thermal equilibrium, the fluctuation-dissipation theorem relates the linear response and correlation functions in a model and observable independent fashion. Out of equilibrium, these relations still hold if the equilibrium temperature is replaced by an observable and frequency-dependent parameter (effective temperature). When the system achieves a long time thermal state all of these effective temperatures should be equal and constant. Following this approach we examine the long times regime after a quantum quench in a system with bipartite entanglement in which the asymptotic values of the observable are compatible with the ones obtained in a Gibbs ensemble. We observe that when the initial entanglement is large, and for a large range of (intermediate) frequencies, the effective temperatures corresponding to the analyzed local and non-local operators approach an approximate constant value equal to the temperature that governs the decay of correlations. Still, the residual frequency dependence in the effective temperature, and the differences observed among observables discards strict thermalization.