Controlling energy storage crossing quantum phase transitions in an integrable spin quantum battery

Abstract: We investigate the performance of a one-dimensional dimerized XY chain as a spin quantum battery. Such integrable model shows a rich quantum phase diagram that emerges through a mapping of the spins onto auxiliary fermionic degrees of freedom. We consider a charging protocol relying on the double quench of an internal parameter, namely the strength of the dimerization, and address the energy stored in the systems. We observe three distinct regimes, depending on the time-scale characterizing the duration of the charging: a short-time regime related to the dynamics of the single dimers, a long-time regime related to the recurrence time of the system at finite size, and a thermodynamic limit time regime. In the latter, the energy stored is almost unaffected by the charging time and the precise values of the charging parameters, provided the quench crosses a quantum phase transition. Such a robust many-body effect, that characterizes also other models like the quantum Ising chain in a transverse field, as we prove analytically, can play a relevant role in the design of stable solid-state quantum batteries.