We study transport in spin chains employing the Thouless approach based on the level sensitivity to the boundary conditions, $R$. Although spin transport in the integrable easy-axis XXZ model is diffusive, the corresponding $R$ is much closer to ballistic chains than to chaotic diffusive systems. In the case of the grand canonical ensemble, this observation can be rigorously justified, while in the case of the canonical ensemble it can be demonstrated by numerical calculations. Integrability-breaking perturbation (IBP) strongly reduces $R$, which reveals a pronounced minimum at the crossover from anomalous diffusive to normal dissipative transport. This minimum coincides with the onset of the universality of the random matrix theory. Results for various IBPs suggest a discontinuous jump of the spin conductivity in the thermodynamic limit, and moreover that its value is proportional to the strength of the IBP.

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• Transport phenomena
• 1-dimensional spin chains
• 1-dimensional systems
• Exact diagonalization
• Spin chains