Entanglement dynamics of a hard-core quantum gas during a Joule expansion

Abstract

We study the entanglement dynamics of a one-dimensional hard-core quantum gas initially confined in a box of size $L$ with saturated density $\rho=1$. The gas is suddenly released into a region of size $2L$ by moving one of the box edges. We show that the analytic prediction for the entanglement entropy obtained from quantum fluctuating hydrodynamics holds quantitatively true even after several reflections of the gas against the box edges. We further investigate the long time limit $t/L\gg 1$ where a Floquet picture of the non-equilibrium dynamics emerges and hydrodynamics eventually breaks down.