Heat conduction in one-dimensional aperiodic quantum Ising chains

Abstract

The heat conductivity of nonperiodic quantum Ising chains whose ends are connected with heat baths at different temperatures are studied numerically by solving the Lindblad master equation. The chains are subjected to a uniform transverse field h, while the exchange coupling J{m} between the nearest-neighbor spins takes the two values J{A} and J{B} arranged in Fibonacci, generalized Fibonacci, Thue-Morse, and period-doubling sequences. We calculate the energy-density profile and energy current of the resulting nonequilibrium steady states to study the heat-conducting behavior of finite but large systems. Although these nonperiodic quantum Ising chains are integrable, it is clearly found that energy gradients exist in all chains and the energy currents appear to scale as the system size <Q> ~N{α}. By increasing the ratio of couplings, the exponent α can be modulated from α > -1 to α < -1 corresponding to the nontrivial transition from the abnormal heat transport to the heat insulator. The influences of the temperature gradient and the magnetic field to heat conduction have also been discussed.