Dynamical correlations and domain wall relocalization in transverse field Ising chains

TL;DR

This paper investigates how correlations and domain wall behaviors evolve in various transverse field Ising chains, revealing complex dynamics influenced by integrability, disorder, and symmetry, with implications for quantum phase diagnostics.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of dynamical domain wall relocalization and explores its effects on correlators in diverse Ising chain models, highlighting new phenomena in quantum dynamics.

Findings

Diverse correlator behaviors from stable to decaying signals.

Disorder degrades long-lived signals even without interactions.

OTOCs can serve as powerful dynamical probes of quantum phases.

Abstract

We study conventional and out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs) for a wide variety of transverse field Ising chains: classical and quantum, clean and disordered, and integrable and generic. The setting we consider is that of a quantum quench. We find a remarkably rich phenomenology, ranging from stable periodic signals to ones decaying with varying rates. This variety is due to a complex interplay of constraints on thermalization imposed by integrability and symmetry. A process we term dynamical domain wall relocalization provides a long-lived signal in the clean, integrable case, which can be degraded by the addition of disorder even without interactions. Our results shed light on a proposal to use an OTOC as a dynamical diagnostic of a quantum phase more powerful than a standard observable.