Higher-order generalized hydrodynamics in one dimension: The noninteracting test

We derive a dynamical equation that describes the exact time evolution in generic (inhomogeneous) noninteracting spin-chain models. Assuming quasistationarity, we develop a (generalized) hydrodynamic theory. The question at hand is whether some large-time corrections are captured by higher-order hydrodynamics. We consider in particular the dynamics after two chains, prepared in different conditions, are joined together. In these situations, a light cone, separating regions with macroscopically different properties, emerges from the junction. In free fermionic systems some observables close to the light cone follow a universal behavior, known as Tracy-Widom scaling. Universality means a weak dependence on the system's details, so this is the perfect setting where hydrodynamics could emerge. For the transverse-field Ising chain and the XX model, we show that hydrodynamics captures the scaling behavior close to the light cone. On the other hand, our numerical analysis suggests that hydrodynamics fails in more general models, whenever a condition is not satisfied.