Fluctuations of the heat exchanged between two quantum spin chains

Abstract

The statistics of the heat exchanged between two quantum XX spin chains prepared at different temperatures is studied within the assumption of weak coupling. This provides simple formulas for the average heat and its corresponding characteristic function, from which the probability distribu- tion may be computed numerically. These formulas are valid for arbitrary sizes and therefore allow us to analyze the role of the thermodynamic limit in this non-equilibrium setting. It is found that all thermodynamic quantities are extremely sensitive to the quantum phase transition of the XX chain.