Quasi-conserved charges in the perturbed spin-1/2 XXX model

Abstract

We consider the isotropic spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg spin chain weakly perturbed by a local translationally- and $SU(2)$-invariant perturbation. Starting from the local integrals of motion of the unperturbed model, we modify them in order to obtain quasi-conserved integrals of motion (charges) for the perturbed model. Such quasi-conserved quantities are believed to be responsible for the existence of the prethermalization phase at intermediate timescales. We find that for a sufficiently local perturbation the quasi-conserved quantities indeed exist, and we construct an explicit form for the first few of them.