We numerically study quantum chaos properties of long-range XXZ dipolar Hamiltonian spin systems. Two geometries are considered: (i) an open chain with 19 spins, (ii) a face-centered cubic lattice with 14 spins. Energy level-spacing distribution indicates that the three-dimensional geometry is highly chaotic, while the one-dimensional system is mildly chaotic for small chains, but has increasing chaoticity for larger chains. We also look at statistical properties of energy eigenvectors, and of one- and two-body local observables. Finally, we present some preliminary results on time-evolution, local spin dynamics and thermalization. Quantum chaos may have important implications for "scrambling" of quantum information, in both condensed matter systems and in astrophysical applications such as black holes.
We numerically study quantum chaos properties of long-range XXZ dipolar Hamiltonian spin systems. Two geometries are considered: (i) an open chain with 19 spins, (ii) a face-centered cubic lattice with 14 spins. Energy level-spacing distribution indicates that the three-dimensional geometry is highly chaotic, while the one-dimensional system is mildly chaotic for small chains, but has increasing chaoticity for larger chains. We also look at statistical properties of energy eigenvectors, and of one- and two-body local observables. Finally, we present some preliminary results on time-evolution, local spin dynamics and thermalization. Quantum chaos may have important implications for "scrambling" of quantum information, in both condensed matter systems and in astrophysical applications such as black holes.
In classical systems, chaos is clearly defined via the behavior of trajectories. In quantum systems with a classical analogue one finds that the transition from regular to chaotic dynamics is signified by a change in the spectral statistics. This has been found to remain true for quantum systems with no classical analogue, including many-body systems. Furthermore, quantum chaotic systems explore all the allowed configurations in the Hilbert space, i.e. they are ergodic, while integrable systems, and systems in the many-body localized phase, are restricted to a certain subspace of the available phase space, and hence strongly break ergodicity. In this dissertation, we study the intermediate behavior between ergodicity and localization, i.e. the weak breaking of ergodicity. The model examined is the PXP spin chain model, where spins are allowed to flip only under certain kinetic constraints. We start by reproducing some already established results. First, we explore the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) for this model and demonstrate the existence of a small number of states, throughout the PXP spectrum, that violate the ETH. Then we study the level-spacing statistics of the model, a well-known quantum chaos diagnostic, which turns out to be close to semi-Poisson and approach Wigner--Dyson statistics for large system sizes. Moreover, we examine various aspects of the model that have not been studied before. For example, the eigenvector component statistics, another quantum chaos diagnostic, for the PXP model turn out to be non-Gaussian. Finally, we perform a quench, in order to study how the energy spreads throughout the system, and observe ballistic fronts.
Chaos in many-body quantum systems is of great importance to both many-body physics as well as black hole physics. In the field of many-body physics, interactions and disorder in the system can lead to various dynamic phenomena, be it thermalisation, many-body localisation, chaotic behavior and scrambling of quantum information. In the field of high energy physics, the holographic principle connects chaos and scrambling in many-body quantum systems with the information-theoretic properties of black holes. Theoretical quantum physics provides the framework for the models, methods, and results in this thesis, while black hole physics partly provides some motivation and inspiration. First, we introduce a new model for a many-body quantum system based on random quantum circuits. These are a popular framework for theoretic study of disordered spin chains. By drawing the random unitaries in the circuit from different ensembles, we can adjust the disorder strength in the interactions, which in turn leads to a thermal/many-body localisation phase transition. Next, we study the Brownian SYK model, a disordered model of Majorana fermions with all-to-all interactions, motivated by its link to the holographic principle. We develop a new numerical method based on an effective permutational symmetry to reduce computational cost from exponential to linear or quadratic in system size N. As a consequence, we can compute scrambling quantifiers in detail, and find a log N scrambling time, as conjectured in the context of fast scrambling for black holes. Finally, we develop a model based on the continuous-time limit of a random quantum circuit. It serves as a microscopic toy model for the evaporation of a black hole. With a similar method as developed for the Brownian SYK model, we can analyse its information theoretic properties. In particular, we follow established protocols for information retrieval from the Hawking radiation. We find a separation of time scales for entanglement growth and information retrieval, related to the intrinsic black hole dynamics (∝log N) and the coupling to the environment (∝N).
We investigate signatures of quantum chaos within Ising spin chains subjected to transverse and longitudinal fields, incorporating both local (nearest-neighbor) and non-local (long-range) couplings. While local Ising models may exhibit integrable or chaotic dynamics contingent on interaction strengths and field parameters, systems with non-local interactions generally display a stronger propensity toward chaos, even when the non-local couplings are weak. By examining the distribution of energy level spacings through the level spacing ratio, we delineate the transition from integrable to chaotic regimes and characterize the emergence of quantum chaos in these systems. Our analysis demonstrates that non-local couplings facilitate faster operator spreading and more intricate dynamical behavior, enabling these systems to approach maximal chaos more readily than their local counterparts. Additionally, we analyze Krylov complexity as a dynamical probe of chaos, observing a characteristic peak followed by a plateau at late times in chaotic regimes. This behavior provides a quantitative means to distinguish between integrable and chaotic phases, with the growth rate and saturation level of the complexity serving as effective indicators. Our findings underscore the role of non-local interactions in accelerating the onset of chaos and modifying dynamical complexity in quantum spin chains.
Is there a quantum many-body system that scrambles information as fast as a black hole? The Sachev-Ye-Kitaev model can saturate the conjectured bound for chaos, but it requires random all-to-all couplings of Majorana fermions that are hard to realize in experiments. Here we examine a quantum spin model of randomly oriented dipoles where the spin exchange is governed by dipole-dipole interactions. The model is inspired by recent experiments on dipolar spin systems of magnetic atoms, dipolar molecules, and nitrogen-vacancy centers. We map out the phase diagram of this model by computing the energy-level statistics, spectral form factor, and out-of-time-order correlation (OTOC) functions. We find a broad regime of many-body chaos where the energy levels obey Wigner-Dyson statistics and the OTOC shows distinctive behaviors at different times: Its early-time dynamics is characterized by an exponential growth, while the approach to its saturated value at late times obeys a power law. The temperature scaling of the Lyapunov exponent ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{L}$ shows that while it is well below the conjectured bound $2\ensuremath{\pi}T$ at high temperatures, ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{L}$ approaches the bound at low temperatures and for large number of spins.
The problems of chaos and relaxation have a fundamental importance in the study of many-body classical and quantum systems. We investigate some of the issues related to these problems numerically in classical and quantum spin systems. New results reported in this thesis include: (i) A remarkably simple algorithm for discriminating chaotic from nonchaotic behavior in classical systems using a time series of one macroscopic observable. The effectiveness of this algorithm stems from the qualitative differences in the power spectra of chaotic and nonchaotic systems. (ii) A modified version of the Onsager regression relation applicable to pure quantum states. (iii) An efficient algorithm for computing the infinitetemperature time correlation functions in systems with large Hilbert spaces. (iv) Absence of exponential sensitivity to small perturbations in macroscopic nonintegrable systems of spins 1/2 . Such a behavior is contrasted with the exponential sensitivity to small perturbations in chaotic classical spin systems. (v) Accurate numerical investigations of free induction decay and spin diffusion in certain spin lattices. The consequences of these results have implications for the foundations of statistical mechanics or practical problems such as computing the long-time behavior of the free induction decay in solids.
Time New Roman 10 We investigate signatures of quantum chaos within Ising spin chains subjected to transverse and longitudinal fields, incorporating both local (nearest-neighbor) and non-local (long-range) couplings. While local Ising models may exhibit integrable or chaotic dynamics contingent on interaction strengths and field parameters, systems with non-local interactions generally display a stronger propensity toward chaos, even when the non-local couplings are weak. By examining the distribution of energy level spacings through the level spacing ratio, we delineate the transition from integrable to chaotic regimes and characterize the emergence of quantum chaos in these systems. Our analysis demonstrates that non-local couplings facilitate faster operator spreading and more intricate dynamical behavior, enabling these systems to approach maximal chaos more readily than their local counterparts. Additionally, we analyze Krylov complexity as a dynamical probe of chaos, observing a characteristic peak followed by a plateau at late times in chaotic regimes. This behavior provides a quantitative means to distinguish between integrable and chaotic phases, with the growth rate and saturation level of the complexity serving as effective indicators. Our findings underscore the role of non-local interactions in accelerating the onset of chaos and modifying dynamical complexity in quantum spin chains.