title: Prethermalization in a nonintegrable quantum spin chain after a quench.
abstract: We study the dynamics of a quantum Ising chain after the sudden introduction of a nonintegrable long-range interaction. Via an exact mapping onto a fully connected lattice of hard-core bosons, we show that a prethermal state emerges and we investigate its features by focusing on a class of physically relevant observables. In order to gain insight into the eventual thermalization, we outline a diagrammatic approach which complements the study of the previous quasistationary state and provides the basis for a self-consistent solution of the kinetic equation. This analysis suggests that both the temporal decay towards the prethermal state and the crossover to the eventual thermal one may occur algebraically.
authors.affiliation: SISSA-International School for Advanced Studies, via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, Italy and INFN-Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste, via Bonomea 265, I-34136, Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marcuzzi
authors.forename: Jamir
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Marino
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gambassi
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Silva