Far-from-equilibrium spin transport in Heisenberg quantum magnets

Dynamics of the transverse Ising model with next-nearest-neighbor interactions

We study the effects of next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) interactions on the dynamics of the one-dimensional spin-1/2 transverse Ising model in the high-temperature limit. We use exact diagonalization to obtain the time-dependent transverse correlation function and the corresponding spectral density for a tagged spin. Our results for chains of 13 spins with periodic boundary conditions produce results which are valid in the infinite-size limit. In general we find that the NNN coupling produces slower dynamics accompanied by an enhancement of the central mode behavior. Even in the case of a strong transverse field, if the NNN coupling is sufficiently large, then there is a crossover from collective mode to central mode behavior. We also obtain several recurrants for the continued fraction representation of the relaxation function.

Longitudinal Spin Diffusion in a Nondegenerate Trapped ^{87}Rb Gas

Longitudinal spin diffusion of two pseudospin domains is studied in a trapped ^{87}Rb sample above quantum degeneracy, and the effect of coherence in the domain wall on the dynamics of the system is investigated. Coherence in a domain wall leads to transverse-spin-mediated longitudinal spin diffusion that is slower than classical predictions, as well as altering the domains' oscillation frequency. The system also shows an instability in the longitudinal spin dynamics as longitudinal and transverse spin components couple, and a conversion of longitudinal spin to transverse spin is observed, resulting in an increase in the total amount of coherence in the system.

Spatially Resolved Detection of a Spin-Entanglement Wave in a Bose-Hubbard Chain

Entanglement is an essential property of quantum many-body systems. However, its local detection is challenging and was so far limited to spin degrees of freedom in ion chains. Here we measure entanglement between the spins of atoms located on two lattice sites in a one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard chain which features both local spin- and particle-number fluctuations. Starting with an initially localized spin impurity, we observe an outwards propagating entanglement wave and show quantitatively how entanglement in the spin sector rapidly decreases with increasing particle-number fluctuations in the chain.