Is spin-charge separation observable in a transport experiment?

Abstract

We consider a one-dimensional chain consisting of an interacting area coupled to non-interacting leads. Within the area, interaction is mediated by a local on-site repulsion. Using real time evolution within the Density Matrix Renormalisation Group (DMRG) scheme, we study the dynamics of wave packets in this two-terminal transport setup. In contrast to previous works, where excitations were created by adding potentials to the Hamiltonian, we explicitly create left moving single particle excitations in the right lead as the starting condition. Our simulations show that such a transport setup allows for a clear detection of spin-charge separation using time-resolved spin-polarised density measurements.