We study the nonequilibrium time evolution of the spin-1/2 anisotropic Heisenberg (XXZ) spin chain, with a choice of dimer product and Néel states as initial states. We investigate numerically various short-ranged spin correlators in the long-time limit and find that they deviate significantly from predictions based on the generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE) hypotheses. By computing the asymptotic spin correlators within the recently proposed quench-action formalism [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 257203 (2013)], however, we find excellent agreement with the numerical data. We, therefore, conclude that the GGE cannot give a complete description even of local observables, while the quench-action formalism correctly captures the steady state in this case.

Inspired by classical results in integrable boundary quantum field theory, we propose a definition of integrable initial states for quantum quenches in lattice models. They are defined as the states which are annihilated by all local conserved charges that are odd under space reflection. We show that this class includes the states which can be related to integrable boundary conditions in an appropriate rotated channel, in loose analogy with the picture in quantum field theory. Furthermore, we provide an efficient method to test integrability of given initial states. We revisit the recent literature of global quenches in several models and show that, in all of the cases where closed-form analytical results could be obtained, the initial state is integrable according to our definition. In the prototypical example of the XXZ spin-s chains we show that integrable states include two-site product states but also larger families of matrix product states with arbitrary bond dimension. We argue that our results could be practically useful for the study of quantum quenches in generic integrable models.Comment: 44 pages, 10 figures; v2: minor revisio

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We consider the Generalized Gibbs Ensemble (GGE) in the context of global quantum quenches in XXZ Heisenberg spin chains. Embedding the GGE into the Quantum Transfer Matrix formalism we develop an iterative procedure to fix the Lagrange-multipliers and to calculate predictions for the long-time limit of short-range correlators. The main idea is to consider truncated GGE's with only a finite number of charges and to investigate the convergence of the numerical results as the truncation level is increased. As an example we consider a quantum quench situation where the system is initially prepared in the Néel state and then evolves with an XXZ Hamiltonian with anisotropy ∆ > 1. We provide predictions for short range correlators and gather numerical evidence that the iterative procedure indeed converges. The results show that the system retains memory of the initial condition, and there are clear differences between the numerical values of the correlators as calculated from the purely thermal and the Generalized Gibbs ensembles.

We consider a class of quantum quenches in the spin-1/2 XXZ chain, where the initial state is of a simple product form. Specific examples are the Néel state, the dimer state and the q-deformed dimer state. We compute determinant formulas for finite volume overlaps between the initial state and arbitrary eigenstates of the spin chain Hamiltonian. These results could serve as a basis for calculating the time dependence of correlation functions following the quantum quench.

We consider expectation values of local operators in (continuum) integrable models in a situation when the mean value is calculated in a single Bethe state with a large number of particles. We develop a form factor expansion for the thermodynamic limit of the mean value, which applies whenever the distribution of Bethe roots is given by smooth density functions. We present three applications of our general result: i) In the framework of integrable Quantum Field Theory (IQFT) we present a derivation of the LeClair-Mussardo formula for finite temperature one-point functions. We also extend the results to boundary operators in Boundary Field Theories. ii) We establish the LeClair-Mussardo formula for the non-relativistic 1D Bose gas in the framework of Algebraic Bethe Ansatz (ABA). This way we obtain an alternative derivation of the results of Kormos et. al. for the (temperature dependent) local correlations using only the concepts of ABA. iii) In IQFT we consider the long-time limit of one-point functions after a certain type of global quench. It is shown that our general results imply the integral series found by Fioretti and Mussardo. We also discuss the generalized Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis in the context of quantum quenches in integrable models. It is shown that a single mean value always takes the form of a thermodynamic average in a Generalized Gibbs Ensemble, although the relation to the conserved charges is rather indirect.

We consider finite temperature correlation functions in massive integrable Quantum Field Theory. Using a regularization by putting the system in finite volume, we develop a novel approach (based on multi-dimensional residues) to the form factor expansion for thermal correlators. The first few terms are obtained explicitly in theories with diagonal scattering. We also discuss the validity of the LeClair-Mussardo proposal.