Quantum hydrodynamics from local thermal pure states

Abstract

We provide a pure state formulation for hydrodynamic dynamics of isolated quantum many-body systems. A pure state describing quantum systems in local thermal equilibrium is constructed, which we call a local thermal pure quantum ($\ell$TPQ) state. We show that the thermodynamic functional and the expectation values of local operators (including a real-time correlation function) calculated from the $\ell$TPQ state converge to those from a local Gibbs ensemble in the large fluid-cell limit. As a numerical demonstration, we investigate a one-dimensional spin chain and observe the hydrodynamic relaxation obeying the Fourier's law. We further prove the second law of thermodynamics and the quantum fluctuation theorem, which are also validated numerically. The $\ell$TPQ formulation gives a useful theoretical basis to describe the emergent hydrodynamic behavior of quantum many-body systems furnished with a numerical efficiency, being applicable to both the non-relativistic and relativistic regimes.