Scaling behaviour of the relaxation in quantum chains

Abstract

We consider the nonequilibrium time evolution of the transverse magnetization in the critical Ising and $XX$ quantum chains. For some inhomogeneously magnetized initial states we derive analytically the transverse magnetization profiles and show that they evolve into scaling forms in the long-time limit. In particular it is seen that the Ising chain exhibits some similarities with the conserved dynamics $XX$ chain. That is, after a transient regime, the total residual magnetization in the transverse direction is also conserved in the Ising case. A class of general initial states is also considered.