Relaxation dynamics in the gapped XXZ spin-1/2 chain

Abstract

We study the dynamics of a quench-prepared domain wall state released into a system whose unitary time evolution is dictated by the Hamiltonian of the Heisenberg spin-1/2 gapped antiferromagnetic chain. Using exact wavefunctions and their overlaps with the domain wall state allows us to describe the release dynamics to high accuracy, up to the long-time limit, for finite as well as infinite systems. The results for the infinite system allow us to rigorously prove that the system in the gapped regime ($\Delta >1$) cannot thermalize in the strict sense.