The nonequilibrium evolution of the block entanglement entropy is investigated in the $XY$ chain in a transverse magnetic field after the Hamiltonian parameters are suddenly changed from and to arbitrary values. Using Toeplitz matrix representation and multidimensional phase methods, we provide analytic results for large blocks and for all times, showing explicitly the linear growth in time followed by saturation. The consequences of these analytic results are discussed and the effects of a finite block length is taken into account numerically.

• Received 24 April 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.78.010306