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arXiv:1810.00038 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Out-of-time ordered correlators and entanglement growth in the random-field XX spin chain

Jonathon Riddell, Erik Schwartz Sørensen

Published Feb 13, 2019• 47 citations
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Abstract

We study out-of-time ordered correlations $C(x,t)$ and entanglement growth in the random-field XX model with open boundary conditions using the exact Jordan-Wigner transformation to a fermionic Hamiltonian. For any nonzero strength of the random field, this model describes an Anderson insulator. Two scenarios are considered: a global quench with the initial state corresponding to a product state of the N\'eel form, and the behavior in a typical thermal state at $\ensuremath{\beta}=1$. As a result of the presence of disorder, the information spreading as described by the out-of-time correlations stops beyond a typical length scale ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\text{OTOC}}$. For $|x|<{\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\text{OTOC}}$, information spreading occurs at the maximal velocity ${v}_{\mathrm{max}}=J$ and we confirm predictions for the early-time behavior of $C(x,t)\ensuremath{\sim}{t}^{2|x|}$. For the case of the quench starting from the N\'eel product state, we also study the growth of the bipartite entanglement, focusing on the late- and infinite-time behavior. The approach to a bounded entanglement is observed to be slow for the disorder strengths we study.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.99.054205

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We study out-of-time ordered correlations C(x,t)C(x,t)C(x,t) and entanglement growth in the random-field XX model with open boundary conditions using the exact Jordan-Wigner transformation to a fermionic Hamiltonian. For any nonzero strength of the random field, this model describes an Anderson insulator. Two scenarios are considered: a global quench with the initial state corresponding to a product state of the N'eel form, and the behavior in a typical thermal state at \ensuremathβ=1\ensuremath{\beta}=1\ensuremathβ=1. As a result of the presence of disorder, the information spreading as described by the out-of-time correlations stops beyond a typical length scale \ensuremathξOTOC{\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\text{OTOC}}\ensuremathξOTOC​. For ∣x∣<\ensuremathξOTOC|x|<{\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\text{OTOC}}∣x∣<\ensuremathξOTOC​, information spreading occurs at the maximal velocity vmax=J{v}_{\mathrm{max}}=Jvmax​=J and we confirm predictions for the early-time behavior of C(x,t)\ensuremath∼t2∣x∣C(x,t)\ensuremath{\sim}{t}^{2|x|}C(x,t)\ensuremath∼t2∣x∣. For the case of the quench starting from the N'eel product state, we also study the growth of the bipartite entanglement, focusing on the late- and infinite-time behavior. The approach to a bounded entanglement is observed to be slow for the disorder strengths we study.
We numerically investigate the growth of the entanglement entropy Sent(t){S}_{\mathrm{ent}}(t)Sent​(t) in time ttt, after a global quench from a product state, in quantum chains with various kinds of disorder. The main focus is, in particular, on fermionic chains with bond disorder. In the noninteracting case at criticality we numerically test recent predictions by the real-space renormalization group for the entanglement growth in time, the maximal entanglement as a function of block size, and the decay of a density-wave order parameter. We show that multiprecision calculations are required to reach the scaling regime and perform such calculations for specific cases. For interacting models with binary bond disorder we present data based on infinite-size density matrix renormalization group calculations and exact diagonalizations. We obtain numerical evidence of a many-body localized phase in bond-disordered systems where ${S}_{\mathrm{ent}}(t)\ensuremath{\sim}lnt$ seems to hold. Our results for bond disorder are contrasted with the well-studied case of potential disorder.
We study a model of free fermions on a chain with dynamics generated by random unitary gates acting on nearest neighbor bonds and present an exact calculation of time-ordered and out-of-time-ordered correlators. We consider three distinct cases: the random circuit with spatio-temporal disorder (i) with and (ii) without particle number conservation and (iii) the particle non-conserving case with purely temporal disorder. In all three cases, temporal disorder causes diffusive operator spreading and ∼t\sim\sqrt{t}∼t​ entanglement growth. This is in sharp contrast to Anderson localization for the case of static disorder and with the ballistic behavior observed in both the clean case of Hamiltonian evolution and in fully random unitary quantum circuits.
We investigate how information spreads in three paradigmatic one-dimensional models with spatial disorder. The models we consider are unitarily related to a system of free fermions and, thus, are manifestly integrable. We demonstrate that out-of-time-order correlators can spread slowly beyond the single-particle localization length, despite the absence of many-body interactions. This phenomenon is shown to be due to the nonlocal relationship between elementary excitations and the physical degrees of freedom. We argue that this nonlocality becomes relevant for time-dependent correlation functions. In addition, a slow logarithmic-in-time growth of the entanglement entropy is observed following a quench from an unentangled initial state. We attribute this growth to the presence of strong zero modes, which gives rise to an exponential hierarchy of time scales upon ensemble averaging. Our work on disordered integrable systems complements the rich phenomenology of information spreading and we discuss broader implications for general systems with nonlocal correlations.
This work provides a full description of the critical behavior of the XX spin-1/2 chain under correlated quenched disorder.Previous investigations have shown that the introduction of correlation between couplings in the random XX model gives rise to a novel critical behavior, where the infinite-randomness critical point of the uncorrelated case is replaced by a family of finite-disorder critical points that depends on the disorder strength.Here it is shown that most of the critical exponents of the XX model with correlated randomness are equal to clean (without disorder) chain values and do not depend on disorder strength, except the critical dynamical exponent and the anomalous dimension.The former increases monotonically with disorder strength, whereas the results obtained for the latter are unreliable.Furthermore, the scaling relations between the critical exponents were also tested and it was found that those involving the system dimensionality, namely the hyperscaling and Fisher's scaling relations, are not respected.Measurements of the Rényi entanglement entropy of the system at criticality have also been performed, and it is shown that the scaling behavior of the correlated-disorder case is similar to the theoretical prediction for the clean chain, displaying the same finite-size correction and a disorder-dependent effective central charge in the leading term of the scaling.Further corrections to the scaling of the entanglement entropy were also investigated, but the results are inconclusive.The model was studied via exact numerical diagonalization of the corresponding Hamiltonian.
Out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOC) have been proposed to characterize quantum chaos in generic systems. However, they can also show interesting behavior in integrable models, resembling the OTOC in chaotic systems in some aspects. Here we study the OTOC for different operators in the exactly-solvable one-dimensional quantum Ising spin chain. The OTOC for spin operators that are local in terms of the Jordan-Wigner fermions has a ``shell-like'' structure: After the wavefront passes, the OTOC approaches its original value in the long-time limit, showing no signature of scrambling; the approach is described by a ${t}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ power law at long time ttt. On the other hand, the OTOC for spin operators that are nonlocal in the Jordan-Wigner fermions has a ``ball-like'' structure, with its value reaching zero in the long-time limit, looking like a signature of scrambling; the approach to zero, however, is described by a slow power law ${t}^{\ensuremath{-}1/4}$ for the Ising model at the critical coupling. These long-time power-law behaviors in the lattice model are not captured by conformal field theory calculations. The mixed OTOC with both local and nonlocal operators in the Jordan-Wigner fermions also has a ``ball-like'' structure, but the limiting values and the decay behavior appear to be nonuniversal. In all cases, we are not able to define a parametrically large window around the wavefront to extract the Lyapunov exponent.
We investigate the typicality of the growth behavior of the out-of-time-ordered commutator (OTOC) in the many-body localized (MBL) quantum spin chains across random disorder realizations. In the MBL phase of the Heisenberg XXZ chain, we find that the estimate of the OTOC fluctuates significantly with the disorder realizations at the intermediate times of the main growth. Despite the consequent failure of the disorder average in the MBL phase, we argue that the characteristic behavior of the OTOC growth can still be identified by going through individual disorder realizations. We find that a power-law-type growth behavior appears typically after a disorder-dependent relaxation period, which is very close to the t2{t}^{2}t2 form derived in the effective Hamiltonian of a fully MBL system. The characteristic growth behavior observed at an individual disorder realization is robust in our tests with various state preparations and also verified in another MBL system of the random-transverse-field quantum Ising chain in a uniform longitudinal field.