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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 43: Poster Session: Quantum Chaos and Many-Body Dynamics

DY 43.2: Poster

Donnerstag, 8. September 2022, 15:00–18:00, P2

Prethermalization in confined spin chains — •Stefan Birnkammer, Alvise Bastianello, and Michael Knap — Technical University Munich, Germany

Unconventional nonequilibrium phases with restricted correlation spreading and slow entanglement growth have been proposed to emerge in systems with confined excitations, calling their thermalization dynamics into question. Here, we investigate the many-body dynamics of a confined Ising spin chain, in which domain walls in the ordered phase form bound states reminiscent of mesons. We show that the thermalization dynamics after a quantum quench exhibits multiple stages with well separated time scales. The system first relaxes towards a prethermal state, described by a Gibbs ensemble with conserved meson number. The prethermal state arises from rare events in which mesons are created in close vicinity, leading to an avalanche of scattering events. Only at much later times a true thermal equilibrium is achieved in which the meson number conservation is violated by a mechanism akin to the Schwinger effect.