Lack of thermalization in (1+1)-d quantum chromodynamics at large Nc

Abstract

Motivated by recent works aimed at understanding the status of equilibration and the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis in theories with confinement, we return to the ’t Hooft model, the large-Nc limit of (1 + 1)-d quantum chromodynamics. This limit has been studied extensively since its inception in the mid-1970s, with various exact results being known, such as the quark and meson propagators, the quark-antiquark interaction vertex, and the meson decay amplitude. We then argue this model is an ideal laboratory to study non-equilibrium phenomena, since it is manifestly non-integrable, yet one retains a high level of analytic control through large-Nc diagrammatics. We first elucidate what are the non-equilibrium manifestations of the phenomenon of large-Nc volume independence. We then find that within the confined phase, there is a class of initial states that lead to a violation of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, i.e. the system never thermalizes. This is due to the existence of heavy mesons with an extensive amount of energy, a phenomenon that has been numerically observed recently in the quantum Ising chain.