Entanglement in spin chains with gradients

Abstract

We study solvable spin chains where either fields or couplings vary linearly in space and create a sandwich-like structure of the ground state. We find that the entanglement entropy between two halves of a chain varies logarithmically with the interface width. After quenching to a homogeneous critical system, the entropy grows logarithmically in time in the XX model, but quadratically in the transverse Ising chain. We explain this behaviour and indicate generalizations to other power laws.