Decoherence, relaxation and thermalization in one-dimensional quantum models
Prof. Jesko Sirker (TU Kaiserslautern)

I will consider non-equilibrium dynamics in a one-dimensional Hubbard model and in a toy model for particle injection into a chain. The properties of such systems can be calculated numerically by time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) methods. According to the Lieb-Robinson bound, information spreads with a finite velocity giving rise to an effective light cone. In my talk I will show how this light cone structure can be used to set up a very efficient DMRG algorithm. With the help of the DMRG data and analytical results for non-interacting cases I will discuss the differences between decoherence and relaxation as well as a possible thermalization in the long-time limit.