  We consider quantum many body systems as quantum channels and study the
relation between the transfer quality and the size of the spectral gap between
the system's ground and excited states. In our setup two ancillas are weakly
coupled to the quantum many body system at different sites, and we study the
propagation of an excitation and quantum information from one ancilla to the
other. We observe two different scenarios: a slow, but perfect transfer if the
gap large and a fast, but un-complete transfer otherwise. We provide a
numerical and analytical approach as well as a simplified physical model
explaining our findings. Our results relate the potential of spin chains acting
as quantum channels to the concept of quantum phase transitions and offer a
different approach to the characterisation of these.
