Using an approach based on the time-dependent density-matrix renormalization-group method, we study the thermalization in spin chains locally coupled to an external bath. Our results provide evidence that quantum chaotic systems do thermalize, that is, they exhibit relaxation to an invariant ergodic state which, in the bulk, is well approximated by the grand canonical state. Moreover, the resulting ergodic state in the bulk does not depend on the details of the baths. On the other hand, for integrable systems we found that the invariant state in general depends on the bath and is different from the grand canonical state.

• Received 6 October 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.81.051135