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arXiv:1410.1666

Quantum spin chains and random matrix theory

H. J. Wells

Published Oct 7, 2014• 4 citations
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Abstract

The spectral statistics and entanglement within the eigenstates of generic spin chain Hamiltonians are analysed. A class of random matrix ensembles is defined which include the most general nearest-neighbour qubit chain Hamiltonians. For these ensembles, and their generalisations, it is seen that the long chain limiting spectral density is a Gaussian and that this convergence holds on the level of individual Hamiltonians. The rate of this convergence is numerically seen to be slow. Higher eigenvalue correlation statistics are also considered, the canonical nearest-neighbour level spacing statistics being numerically observed and linked with ensemble symmetries. A heuristic argument is given for a conjectured form of the full joint probability density function for the eigenvalues of a wide class of such ensembles. This is numerically verified in a particular case. For many translationally-invariant nearest-neighbour qubit Hamiltonians it is shown that there exists a complete orthonormal set of eigenstates for which the entanglement present in a generic member, between a fixed length block of qubits and the rest of the chain, approaches its maximal value as the chain length increases. Many such Hamiltonians are seen to exhibit a simple spectrum so that their eigenstates are unique up to phase. The entanglement within the eigenstates contrasts the spectral density for such Hamiltonians, which is that seen for a non-interacting chain of qubits. For such non-interacting chains, their always exists a basis of eigenstates for which there is no entanglement present.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1410.1666

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The spectral statistics and entanglement within the eigenstates of generic spin chain Hamiltonians are analysed. A class of random matrix ensembles is defined which include the most general nearest-neighbour qubit chain Hamiltonians. For these ensembles, and their generalisations, it is seen that the long chain limiting spectral density is a Gaussian and that this convergence holds on the level of individual Hamiltonians. The rate of this convergence is numerically seen to be slow. Higher eigenvalue correlation statistics are also considered, the canonical nearest-neighbour level spacing statistics being numerically observed and linked with ensemble symmetries. A heuristic argument is given for a conjectured form of the full joint probability density function for the eigenvalues of a wide class of such ensembles. This is numerically verified in a particular case. For many translationally-invariant nearest-neighbour qubit Hamiltonians it is shown that there exists a complete orthonormal set of eigenstates for which the entanglement present in a generic member, between a fixed length block of qubits and the rest of the chain, approaches its maximal value as the chain length increases. Many such Hamiltonians are seen to exhibit a simple spectrum so that their eigenstates are unique up to phase. The entanglement within the eigenstates contrasts the spectral density for such Hamiltonians, which is that seen for a non-interacting chain of qubits. For such non-interacting chains, their always exists a basis of eigenstates for which there is no entanglement present.
Random matrix ensembles are introduced that respect the local tensor structure of Hamiltonians describing a chain of nnn distinguishable spin-half particles with nearest-neighbour interactions. We prove a central limit theorem for the density of states when n→∞n \rightarrow\inftyn→∞, giving explicit bounds on the rate of approach to the limit. Universality within a class of probability measures and the extension to more general interaction geometries are established. The level spacing distributions of the Gaussian Orthogonal, Unitary and Symplectic Ensembles are observed numerically for the energy levels in these ensembles.
A key goal of quantum chaos is to establish a relationship between widely observed universal spectral fluctuations of clean quantum systems and random matrix theory (RMT).Most prominent features of such RMT behavior with respect to a random spectrum, both encompassed in spectral pair correlation function, are statistical suppression of small level spacings (correlation hole) and enhanced stiffness of the spectrum at large spectral ranges.For single particle systems with fully chaotic classical counterparts, the problem has been partly solved by Berry [Proc.R. Soc.London, A400, 229 (1985)] within the so-called diagonal approximation of semiclassical periodic-orbit sums, while the derivation of the full RMT spectral form factor K(t) (Fourier transform of spectral pair correlation function), from semiclassics has been completed by Müller et al. [Phys.Rev. Lett.93, 014103 (2004)].In recent years, the questions of long-time dynamics at high energies, for which the full many-body energy spectrum becomes relevant, are coming at the forefront even for simple many-body quantum systems, such as locally interacting spin chains.Such systems display two universal types of behaviour which are termed as the 'many-body localized phase' and 'ergodic phase'.In the ergodic phase, the spectral fluctuations are excellently described by RMT, even for very simple interactions and in the absence of any external source of disorder.Here we provide a clear theoretical explanation for these observations.We compute K(t) in the leading two orders in t and show its agreement with RMT for non-integrable, time-reversal invariant many-body systems without classical counterparts, a generic example of which are Ising spin 1/2 models in a periodically kicking transverse field.In particular, we relate K(t) to partition functions of a class of twisted classical Ising models on a ring of size t, hence the leading order RMT behavior K(t)2t is a consequence of translation and reflection symmetry of the Ising partition function.
The extreme-value statistics of the entanglement spectrum in disordered spin chains possessing a many-body localization transition is examined. It is expected that eigenstates in the metallic or ergodic phase, behave as random states and hence the eigenvalues of the reduced density matrix, commonly referred to as the entanglement spectrum, are expected to follow the eigenvalue statistics of a trace normalized Wishart ensemble. In particular, the density of eigenvalues is supposed to follow the universal Marchenko-Pastur distribution. We find deviations in the tails both for the disordered XXZ with total SzS_zSz​ conserved in the half-filled sector as well as in a model that breaks this conservation. A sensitive measure of deviations is provided by the largest eigenvalue, which in the case of the Wishart ensemble after appropriate shift and scaling follows the universal Tracy-Widom distribution. We show that for the models considered, in the metallic phase, the largest eigenvalue of the reduced density matrix of eigenvector, instead follows the generalized extreme-value statistics bordering on the Fisher-Tipett-Gumbel distribution indicating that the correlations between eigenvalues are much weaker compared to the Wishart ensemble. We show by means of distributions conditional on the high entropy and normalized participation ratio of eigenstates that the conditional entanglement spectrum still follows generalized extreme value distribution. In the deeply localized phase we find heavy tailed distributions and Lévy stable laws in an appropriately scaled function of the largest and second largest eigenvalues. The scaling is motivated by a recently developed perturbation theory of weakly coupled chaotic systems.
Understanding the emergence of chaos in many-body quantum systems away from semi-classical limits, particularly in spatially local interacting spin Hamiltonians, has been a long-standing problem. In these intrinsically quantum regimes, quantum chaos has been primarily understood through the correspondence between the eigensystem statistics of midspectrum eigenstates and the universal statistics described by random matrix theory (RMT). However, this correspondence no longer holds for finite-temperature eigenstates. Here we show that the statistical properties of finite-temperature eigenstates of quantum chaotic Hamiltonians can be accurately described by pure random states constrained by a local charge, with the average charge density of the constrained random state ensemble playing the same role as the average energy density of the eigenstates. By properly normalizing the energy density using a single Hamiltonian-dependent parameter that quantifies the typical energy per degree of freedom, we find excellent agreement between the entanglement entropy statistics of eigenstates and that of constrained random states. Interestingly, in small pockets of Hamiltonian parameter phase space which we previously identified as `maximally chaotic' [PRX 14, 031014 (2024)], we find excellent agreement not only at the level of the first moment, including O(1) corrections, but also at the level of statistical fluctuations. These results show that notions of maximal chaos -- in terms of how much randomness eigenstates contain -- can still be defined at finite temperature in physical Hamiltonian models away from semi-classical and large-NNN limits.
We study the spectral properties of and spectral crossovers between different random matrix ensembles [Poissonian, Gaussian orthogonal ensemble (GOE), Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE)] in correlated spin-chain systems, in the presence of random magnetic fields, and the scalar spin-chirality term, competing with the usual isotropic and time-reversal invariant Heisenberg term. We have investigated these crossovers in the context of the level-spacing distribution and the level-spacing ratio distribution. We use random matrix theory (RMT) analytical results to fit the observed Poissonian-to-GOE and GOE-to-GUE crossovers, and examine the relationship between the RMT crossover parameter $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ and scaled physical parameters of the spin-chain systems in terms of a scaling exponent. We find that the crossover behavior exhibits universality, in the sense that, it becomes independent of lattice size in the large Hamiltonian matrix dimension limit. Moreover, the scaling exponent obtained from such a finite size scaling analysis, seems to be quite robust and independent of the type of crossover considered or the specific spectral correlation measure used.
Random matrix theory universality of current operators in spin-SSS Heisenberg chains
Quantum chaotic systems exhibit certain universal statistical properties that closely resemble predictions from random matrix theory (RMT). With respect to observables, it has recently been conjectured that, when truncated to a sufficiently narrow energy window, their statistical properties can be described by an unitarily invariant ensemble, and testable criteria have been introduced, which are based on the scaling behavior of free cumulants. In this paper, we investigate the conjecture numerically in translationally invariant Heisenberg spin chains with spin quantum number S=12,1,32S =\frac{1}{2},1,\frac{3}{2}S=21​,1,23​. Combining a quantum-typicality-based numerical method with the exploitation of the system's symmetries, we study the spin current operator and find clear evidence of consistency with the proposed criteria in chaotic cases. Our findings further support the conjecture of the existence of RMT universality as manifest in the observable properties in quantum chaotic systems.