title: Local quenches with global effects in interacting quantum systems.
abstract: We study one-dimensional lattices of interacting spins-1/2 and show that the effects of quenching the amplitude of a local magnetic field applied to a single site of the lattice can be comparable to the effects of a global perturbation applied instantaneously to the entire system. Both quenches take the system to the chaotic domain, the energy distribution of the initial states approaches a Breit-Wigner shape, the fidelity (Loschmidt echo) decays exponentially, and thermalization becomes viable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Yeshiva University, New York, New York 10016, USA.
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Torres-Herrera
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Yeshiva University, New York, New York 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Lea F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Santos
mesh_terms: D060526:Magnetic Fields; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011789:Quantum Theory