Entanglement dynamics and quantum-state transport in spin chains

We study the dynamics of a Heisenberg $XY$ spin chain with an unknown state coded into one qubit or a pair of entangled qubits, with the rest of the spins being in a polarized state. The time evolution involves magnon excitations, and through them the entanglement is transported across the channel. For a large number of qubits, explicit formulas for the concurrences, measures for two-qubit entanglements, and the fidelity for recovering the state some distance away are calculated as functions of time. Initial states with an entangled pair of qubits show better fidelity, which takes its first maximum value at earlier times, compared to initial states with no entangled pair. In particular initial states with a pair of qubits in an unknown state $\alpha \uparrow \uparrow +\beta \downarrow \downarrow$ are best suited for quantum-state transport.