Steady-state properties of coupled hot and cold Ising chains

Abstract

Recently, the author and Zia (2010) reported on exact results for a far-from-equilibrium system in which two coupled semi-infinite Ising chains at temperatures $T_h$ and $T_c$, with $T_h>T_c$, establish a flux of energy across their junction. This paper provides a complete derivation of those results, more explicit expressions for the energy flux, and a more detailed characterization of the system at arbitrary $T_c$ and $T_h$. We consider the two-point correlation functions and the energy flux $F(x)$ between each spin, located at integer position $x$, and its associated heat bath. In the $T_h \rightarrow \infty$ limit, the flux $F(x)$ decays exponentially into the cold bath (spins with $x=1,2,...$) for all $T_c>0$ and transitions into a power law decay as $T_c \rightarrow 0$. We find an asymptotic expansion for large $x$ in terms of modified Bessel functions that captures both of these behaviors. We perform Monte Carlo simulations that give excellent agreement with both the exact and asymptotic results for $F(x)$. The simulations are also used to study the system at arbitrary $T_h$ and $T_c$.