We consider an open isotropic Heisenberg quantum spin chain, coupled at the ends to boundary reservoirs polarized in different directions, which sets up a twisting gradient across the chain. Using a matrix product ansatz, we calculate the exact magne
tization profiles and magnetization currents in the nonequilibrium steady steady state of a chain with N sites. The magnetization profiles are harmonic functions with a frequency proportional to the twisting angle {theta}. The currents of the magnetization components lying in the twisting plane and in the orthogonal direction behave qualitatively differently: In-plane steady state currents scale as 1/N^2 for fixed and sufficiently large boundary coupling, and vanish as the coupling increases, while the transversal current increases with the coupling and saturates to 2{theta}/N.
We demonstrate that the exact non-equilibrium steady state of the one-dimensional Heisenberg XXZ spin chain driven by boundary Lindblad operators can be constructed explicitly with a matrix product ansatz for the non-equilibrium density matrix where
the matrices satisfy a {it quadratic algebra}. This algebra turns out to be related to the quantum algebra $U_q[SU(2)]$. Coherent state techniques are introduced for the exact solution of the isotropic Heisenberg chain with and without quantum boundary fields and Lindblad terms that correspond to two different completely polarized boundary states. We show that this boundary twist leads to non-vanishing stationary currents of all spin components. Our results suggest that the matrix product ansatz can be extended to more general quantum systems kept far from equilibrium by Lindblad boundary terms.
Different phases in open driven systems are governed by either shocks or rarefaction waves. A presence of an isolated umbilic point in bidirectional systems of interacting particles stabilizes an unusual large scale excitation, an umbilic shock (U-sh
ock). We show that in open systems the U-shock governs a large portion of phase space, and drives a new discontinuous transition between the two rarefaction-controlled phases. This is in contrast with strictly hyperbolic case where such a transition is always continuous. Also, we describe another robust phase which takes place of the phase governed by the U-shock, if the umbilic point is not isolated.
We investigate an open XXZ spin 1/2 chain driven out of equilibrium by coupling with boundary reservoirs targeting different spin orientations in XY plane. Symmetries of the model are revealed which appear to be different for spin chains of odd and e
ven sizes. As a result, spin current is found to alternate with chain length, ruling out the possibility of ballistic transport. Heat transport is switched off completely by virtue of another global symmetry. Further, we investigate the model numerically and analytically. At strong coupling, we find exact nonequilibrium steady state using a perturbation theory. The state is determined by solving secular conditions which guarantee self-consistency of the perturbative expansion. We find nontrivial dependence of the magnetization current on the spin chain anisotropy $Delta$ in the critical region $|Delta|<1$, and a phenomenon of tripling of the twisting angle along the chain for narrow lacunes of $Delta$.
