Out-of-equilibrium inhomogeneous XX chains: Exact results and the hydrodynamic limit

Abstract

We study the out-of-equilibrium dynamics in the XX chain with step-like magnetic field, which maps to an inhomogeneous tight-binding chain after Jordan-Wigner transformation. We obtain exact analytic expressions for the fermionic two-point correlation function after a quantum quench from several initial product states, both homogeneous and inhomogeneous ones. This is achieved by using a combination of Fourier and Laplace transforms, which al low us to map the problem to a standard Riemann-Hilbert problem on the unit circle. For arbitrary positions and times the correlators are not expressed in terms of elementary functions. However, in the hydrodynamic limit $x,y,t\to\infty$ with fixed ratios, we provide explicit formulas that depend only on the effective transmission coefficient across the origin. We benchmark our analytic predictions against exact numerical simulations and find excellent agreement in the hydrodynamic limit, apart from finite-time corrections.