We describe a time evolution algorithm for quantum spin chains whose Hamiltonians are composed of an infinite uniform left and right bulk part, and an arbitrary finite region in between. The left and right bulk parts are allowed to be different from each other. The algorithm is based on the time-dependent variational principle (TDVP) of matrix product states. It is inversion-free and very simple to adapt from an existing TDVP code for finite systems. The importance of working in the projective Hilbert space is highlighted. We study the quantum Ising model as a benchmark and an illustrative example. The spread of information after a local quench is studied in both the ballistic and the diffusive case. We also offer a derivation of TDVP directly from symplectic geometry.
Variational principles play a fundamental role in deriving evolution equations of physics. They are working well in case of nondissipative evolution but for dissipative systems they are not unique, not predictive and not constructive. With methods of modern nonequilibrium thermodynamics, one can derive evolution equations for dissipative phenomena and, surprisingly, can also reproduce the Euler-Lagrange form of the evolution equations for ideal processes. In this work, we examine some demonstrative examples and compare thermodynamic and variational techniques. Then, we argue that instead of se…
A Unified Nonequilibrium Framework: Thermodynamic Distance, Dissipation, and Stationary Laws via Effective State Count, Variational Stationarity, and Thermodynamic Bounds
The mean field approximation results in the mixed spin 1/2 Ising model and spin 1 Blume-Capel model, in the hexagonal nanowire system, are obtained from the Bogoliubov inequality. The Gibbs free energy, magnetization and critical frontiers are obtained. Besides the stable branches of the order parameters, we obtain the metastable and unstable parts of these curves and also find phase transitions of the metastable branches of the order parameters. The classification of the stable, metastable and unstable states is made by comparing the free energy values of these states.
The use of variational method in functional integral approach is discussed for fermion and boson systems with Coulomb interaction. The formal general expression of thermodynamic potential is obtained by Feynman path integral technique and representation of Coulomb interaction with functional integrals. Introduced additional complex field show to transform the problem to calculation of functional integrals containing third order vertices. The thermodynamic potential can be found from variational principle with respect to field cumulants. The calculation of the equation of state and critical pro…
We consider thermodynamic properties, e.g. specific heat, magnetic susceptibility, of alternating Heisenberg spin chains. Due to a hidden Ising symmetry these chains can be decomposed into a set of finite chain fragments. The problem of finding the thermodynamic quantities is effectively separated into two parts. First we deal with finite objects, secondly we can incorporate the fragments into a statistical ensemble. As functions of the coupling constants, the models exhibit special features in the thermodynamic quantities, e.g. the specific heat displays double peaks at low enough temperature…
In solving the problem of finding a temperature distribution which, at zero temperature, corresponds to superfluidity, i.e., to nonzero energy, the author tried to quantize free energy. This was done on the basis of supersecondary quantization whose special case is the usual secondary quantization for bosons and with the help of which new representations of the Schrödinger equation were obtained. The supersecondary quantization allowed the author to construct a variational method whose zero approximation are the Hartree-Fock and Bogolyubov-BCSch variational principles. This method works especi…
The standard formulation of tunneling transport rests on an open-boundary modeling. There, conserving approximations to nonequilibrium Green function or quantum-statistical mechanics provide consistent but computational costly approaches; alternatively, use of density-dependent ballistic-transport calculations [e.g., Phys. Rev. B 52, 5335 (1995)], here denoted `DBT', provide computationally efficient (approximate) atomistic characterizations of the electron behavior but has until now lacked a formal justification. This paper presents an exact, variational nonequilibrium thermodynamic theory fo…
In this paper, we proved that by choosing the proper variational function and variables, the variational approach proposed by M. Doi in soft matter physics was equivalent to the Conservation-Dissipation Formalism. To illustrate the correspondence between these two theories, several novel examples in soft matter physics, including particle diffusion in dilute solutions, polymer phase separation dynamics and nematic liquid crystal flows, were carefully examined. Based on our work, a deep connection among the generalized Gibbs relation, the second law of thermodynamics and the variational princip…
Using a combination of high-temperature series expansion, exact diagonalization and quantum Monte Carlo, we perform a complementary analysis of the thermodynamic properties of quasi-one-dimensional mixed-spin systems with alternating magnetic moments. In addition to explicit series expansions for small spin quantum numbers, we present an expansion that allows a direct evaluation of the series coefficients as a function of spin quantum numbers. Due to the presence of excitations of both acoustic and optical nature, the specific heat of a mixed-spin chain displays a double-peak-like structure, w…
The variational approach to weakly nonlocal thermodynamic theories is critically revisited in the light of modern nonequilibrium thermodynamics. The example of Ginzburg-Landau equation is investigated in detail.
An extended variational principle providing the equations of motion for a system consisting of interacting classical, quasiclassical and quantum components is presented, and applied to the model of bilinear coupling. The relevant dynamical variables are expressed in the form of a quantum state vector which includes the action of the classical subsystem in its phase factor. It is shown that the statistical ensemble of Brownian state vectors for a quantum particle in a classical thermal environment can be described by a density matrix evolving according to a nonlinear quantum Fokker-Planck equat…
The mixed spin-1/2 Ising model and spin-1 Blume-Capel model in an hexagonal nanowire structure under the presence of crystal field is considered. The free energy is obtained through the transfer matrix technique, which is solved numerically. Our main result lies in the presence of pseudo-transition in low temperature region near the ferrimagnetic/ferromagnetic boundary, due to the influence of a crystal field. The evidence of a pseudo-transition is observed in several quantities. Free energy first derivative quantities like entropy and internal energy show an abrupt but continuous jump, wherea…
The General Equation for Non-Equilibrium Reversible-Irreversible Coupling (GENERIC) provides structure of mesoscopic multiscale dynamics that guarantees emergence of equilibrium states. Similarly, a lift of the GENERIC structure to iterated cotangent bundles, called a rate GENERIC, guarantees emergence of the vector fields that generate the approach to equilibrium. Moreover, the rate GENERIC structure also extends Onsager's variational principle. The MaxEnt (Maximum Entropy) principle in the GENERIC structure becomes the Onsager variational principle in the rate GENERIC structure. In the absen…
