Entanglement dynamics after quenches with inhomogeneous Hamiltonians
Abstract
We investigate entanglement dynamics in bipartite systems governed by inhomogeneous Hamiltonians of the form H = HL + HR, where HL/R acts only on the left or right region and is homogeneous within each region. Focusing on the XX chain and the transverse-field Ising chain, we derive analytical formulas for the entanglement entropy between the two regions in the hydrodynamic limit of long times. In this regime, fermions incident on the interface undergo scattering, generating entanglement between reflected and transmitted modes. The resulting quasiparticle picture is controlled by the transmission coefficient, which we obtain analytically by solving the stationary lattice Schrödinger equation. Due to the bounded dispersion, strong inhomogeneity suppresses both transport and entanglement growth. We benchmark our analytical predictions against numerical simulations in paradigmatic setups. Finally, we extend the analysis to the interacting XXZ chain using tDMRG. The numerical data show qualitative agreement with the quadratic case: entanglement growth remains suppressed in the strongly inhomogeneous limit. Notably, however, entanglement continues to increase even when transport is suppressed, at least at intermediate times.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{pasquale2026entanglement,
title = {{Entanglement dynamics after quenches with inhomogeneous Hamiltonians}},
author = {Andrea Di Pasquale and Federico Rottoli and Vincenzo Alba},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.01595},
eprint = {2605.01595},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.01595},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Entanglement dynamics after quenches with inhomogeneous Hamiltonians
AU - Andrea Di Pasquale
AU - Federico Rottoli
AU - Vincenzo Alba
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/13
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.01595
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.01595
AB - We investigate entanglement dynamics in bipartite systems governed by inhomogeneous Hamiltonians of the form H = H_L + H_R, where H_L/R acts only on the left or right region and is homogeneous within each region. Focusing on the XX chain and the transverse-field Ising chain, we derive analytical formulas for the entanglement entropy between the two regions in the hydrodynamic limit of long times. In this regime, fermions incident on the interface undergo scattering, generating entanglement between reflected and transmitted modes. The resulting quasiparticle picture is controlled by the transmission coefficient, which we obtain analytically by solving the stationary lattice Schrödinger equation. Due to the bounded dispersion, strong inhomogeneity suppresses both transport and entanglement growth. We benchmark our analytical predictions against numerical simulations in paradigmatic setups. Finally, we extend the analysis to the interacting XXZ chain using tDMRG. The numerical data show qualitative agreement with the quadratic case: entanglement growth remains suppressed in the strongly inhomogeneous limit. Notably, however, entanglement continues to increase even when transport is suppressed, at least at intermediate times.
ER -