Switching pure states of the dissipative Heisenberg XXZ chain by local magnetic fields

Abstract

The effects of a local magnetic field on nonequilibrium stationary states (NESSs) of the open quantum XXZ spin chain are investigated with a Lindblad master equation approach in the limit of strong dissipation. The local magnetic field is applied to a single bulk spin of the chain while the ends are kept at fixed polarizations by dissipation. We show that suitable changes of the local magnetic field permit us to invert the spin current by switching pure NESS with opposite chiralities while preserving the state purity and achieving optimal transport.