Microscopic origin of ideal conductivity in integrable quantum models

Abstract

Non-ergodic dynamical systems display anomalous transport properties. A prominent example are integrable quantum systems, whose exceptional property are diverging DC conductivities. In this Letter, we explain the microscopic origin of ideal conductivity by resorting to the thermodynamic particle content of a system. Using group-theoretic arguments we rigorously resolve the long-standing controversy regarding the nature of spin and charge Drude weights in the absence of chemical potentials. In addition, by employing a hydrodynamic description, we devise an efficient computational method to calculate exact Drude weights from the stationary currents generated in an inhomogeneous quench from bi-partitioned initial states. We exemplify the method on the anisotropic Heisenberg model at finite temperatures for the entire range of anisotropies, accessing regimes which are out of reach with other approaches. Quite remarkably, spin Drude weight and asymptotic spin current rates reveal a completely discontinuous (fractal) dependence on the anisotropy parameter.