The random matrix theory (RMT) can be used to classify both topological phases of matter and quantum chaos. We develop a systematic and transformative RMT to classify the quantum chaos in the colored Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model first introduced by Gross and Rosenhaus. Here we focus on the two-colored case and the four-colored case with a balanced number of Majorana fermions $N$. By identifying the maximal symmetries, the independent parity conservation sectors, the minimum (irreducible) Hilbert space, and especially the relevant antiunitary and unitary operators, we show that the color degrees of freedom lead to novel quantum chaotic behaviors. When $N$ is odd, different symmetry operators need to be constructed to make the classifications complete. The two-colored case only shows the threefold Wigner-Dyson way, and the four-colored case shows the tenfold generalized Wigner-Dyson way which may also have nontrivial edge exponents. We also study two- and four-colored hybrid SYK models, which display many salient quantum chaotic features hidden in the corresponding pure SYK models. These features motivate us to develop a systematic RMT to study the energy level statistics of two or four uncorrelated random matrix ensembles. The exact diagonalizations are performed to study both the bulk energy level statistics and the edge exponents and to find excellent agreement with our exact maximal symmetry classifications. Our complete and systematic methods can be easily extended to study the generic imbalanced cases. They may be transferred to the classifications of colored tensor models, quantum chromodynamics with pairings across different colors, quantum black holes, and interacting symmetry protected (or enriched) topological phases.
The random matrix theory (RMT) can be used to classify both topological phases of matter and quantum chaos. We develop a systematic and transformative RMT to classify the quantum chaos in the colored Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model first introduced by Gross and Rosenhaus. Here we focus on the two-colored case and the four-colored case with a balanced number of Majorana fermions N. By identifying the maximal symmetries, the independent parity conservation sectors, the minimum (irreducible) Hilbert space, and especially the relevant antiunitary and unitary operators, we show that the color degrees of freedom lead to novel quantum chaotic behaviors. When N is odd, different symmetry operators need to be constructed to make the classifications complete. The two-colored case only shows the threefold Wigner-Dyson way, and the four-colored case shows the tenfold generalized Wigner-Dyson way which may also have nontrivial edge exponents. We also study two- and four-colored hybrid SYK models, which display many salient quantum chaotic features hidden in the corresponding pure SYK models. These features motivate us to develop a systematic RMT to study the energy level statistics of two or four uncorrelated random matrix ensembles. The exact diagonalizations are performed to study both the bulk energy level statistics and the edge exponents and to find excellent agreement with our exact maximal symmetry classifications. Our complete and systematic methods can be easily extended to study the generic imbalanced cases. They may be transferred to the classifications of colored tensor models, quantum chromodynamics with pairings across different colors, quantum black holes, and interacting symmetry protected (or enriched) topological phases.
We develop a unified minimal scheme to classify quantum chaos in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) and supersymmetric (SUSY) SYK models and also work out the structure of the energy levels in one periodic table. The SYK with even q-body or SUSY SYK with odd q-body interaction, with N even or odd number of sites, are put on an equal footing in the minimal Hilbert space; N (mod 8), q (mod 4) double Bott periodicity, and a reflection condition are identified. Exact diagonalizations (EDs) are performed to study both the bulk energy level statistics and hard-edge behaviors. Excellent agreements between the ED results and the symmetry classifications are demonstrated. Our compact and systematic methods can be transformed to map out more complicated periodic tables of SYK models with more degrees of freedom, tensor models, or symmetry protected topological phases.
We investigate chaotic to integrable transition in two types of hybrid SYK models, which contain both q=4 SYK with interaction J and q=2 SYK with an interaction K in type-I or (q=2)2 SYK with an interaction K in type-II. These models include hybrid Majorana fermion, complex fermion, and bosonic SYK. For the Majorana fermion case, we discuss both N even and N odd case. We make exact symmetry analysis on the possible symmetry class of both types of hybrid SYK in the 10-fold way by random matrix theory (RMT) and also work out the degeneracy of each energy levels. We introduce a new universal ratio, which is the ratio of the next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) energy level spacing to characterize the RMT. We perform exact diagonalization to evaluate both the known NN ratio and the new NNN ratio, then use both ratios to study chaotic to integrable transitions (CIT) in both types of hybrid SYK models. Some preliminary results on possible quantum analog of Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) theorem and its dual version in the quantum chaotic side are given. We explore some intrinsic connections between the two complementary approaches to quantum chaos: the RMT and the Lyapunov exponent by the 1/N expansion in the large N limit at a suitable temperature range. We stress the crucial differences between the quantum phase transition (QPT) characterized by renormalization groups at $N=\ensuremath{\infty}$, 1/N expansions at a finite N, and the CIT characterized by the RMT at a finite N: the former focus on the ground state and its low-energy excitations (edge states in the Fock space), the latter on excited states (bulk states in the Fock space). We also discuss eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH)'s power on a quantum chaotic bulk state and its inability to encode the edge states. Comments on some previously related works are given. Some future perspectives, especially the failure of the Zamoloddchikov's c-theorem in 1d CFT RG flow are outlined.
Complete random matrix classification of SYK models with N N = 0, 1 and 2 supersymmetry
We present a complete symmetry classification of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model with N = 0, 1 and 2 supersymmetry (SUSY) on the basis of the Altland-Zirnbauer scheme in random matrix theory (RMT). For N = 0 and 1 we consider generic q-body interactions in the Hamiltonian and find RMT classes that were not present in earlier classifications of the same model with q = 4. We numerically establish quantitative agreement between the distributions of the smallest energy levels in the N = 1 SYK model and RMT. Furthermore, we delineate the distinctive structure of the N = 2 SYK model and provide its complete symmetry classification based on RMT for all eigenspaces of the fermion number operator. We corroborate our classification by detailed numerical comparisons with RMT and thus establish the presence of quantum chaotic dynamics in the N =2 SYK model. We also introduce a new SYK-like model without SUSY that exhibits hybrid properties of the N = 1 and N = 2 SYK models and uncover its rich structure both analytically and numerically.
We study the Wishart-Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (WSYK) model consisting of two $\stackrel{^}{q}$-body Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) models with general complex couplings, one the Hermitian conjugate of the other, living in off-diagonal blocks of a larger WSYK Hamiltonian. The spectrum is positive with a hard edge at zero energy. We employ diagrammatic and combinatorial techniques to compute analytically the low-order moments of the Hamiltonian. In the limit of large number N of Majoranas, we have found striking similarities with the moments of the weight function of the Al-Salam-Chihara Q-Laguerre polynomials. For $\stackrel{^}{q}=3$, 4, the Q-Laguerre prediction, with $Q=Q(\stackrel{^}{q},N)$ also computed analytically, agrees well with exact diagonalization results for $30<N\ensuremath{\le}34$ while we observe some deviations for $\stackrel{^}{q}=2$. The most salient feature of the spectral density is that, for odd $\stackrel{^}{q}$, low-energy excitations grow as a stretched exponential, with a functional form different from that of the supersymmetric SYK model. For $\stackrel{^}{q}=4$, a detailed analysis of level statistics reveals quantum chaotic dynamics even for time scales substantially shorter than the Heisenberg time. More specifically, the spacing ratios in the bulk of the spectrum and the microscopic spectral density and the number variance close to the hard edge are very well approximated by that of an ensemble of random matrices that, depending on N, belong to the chiral or superconducting universality classes. In particular, we report the first realization of level statistics belonging to the chiral Gaussian Unitary Ensemble universality class, which completes the tenfold-way classification in the SYK model.
A class of tensor models were recently outlined as potentially calculable examples of holography: their perturbative large-N behavior is similar to the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model, but they are fully quantum mechanical (in the sense that there is no quenched disorder averaging). These facts make them intriguing tentative models for quantum black holes. In this note, we explicitly diagonalize the simplest non-trivial Gurau-Witten tensor model and study its spectral and late-time properties. We find parallels to (a single sample of) SYK where some of these features were recently attributed to random matrix behavior and quantum chaos. In particular, the spectral form factor exhibits a dip-ramp-plateau structure after a running time average, in qualitative agreement with SYK. But we also observe that even though the spectrum has a unique ground state, it has a huge (quasi-?)degeneracy of intermediate energy states, not seen in SYK. If one ignores the delta function due to the degeneracies however, there is level repulsion in the unfolded spacing distribution hinting chaos. Furthermore, there are gaps in the spectrum. The system also has a spectral mirror symmetry which we trace back to the presence of a unitary operator with which the Hamiltonian anticommutes. We use it to argue that to the extent that the model exhibits random matrix behavior, it is controlled not by the Dyson ensembles, but by the BDI (chiral orthogonal) class in the Altland-Zirnbauer classification.
The identification, description, and classification of topological features is an engine of discovery and innovation in several fields of physics. This research encompasses a broad variety of systems, from the integer and fractional Chern insulators in condensed matter, to protected states in complex photonic lattices in optics, and the structure of the QCD vacuum. Here, we introduce another playground for topology: the dissipative dynamics of pseudo-Hermitian many-body quantum systems. For that purpose, we study two different systems, the dissipative Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model, and a quantum chaotic dephasing spin chain. For the two different many-body models, we find the same topological features for a wide range of parameters suggesting that they are universal. In the SYK model, we identify four universality classes, related to pseudo-Hermiticity, characterized by a rectangular block representation of the vectorized Liouvillian that is directly related to the existence of an anomalous trace of the unitary operator implementing fermionic exchange. As a consequence of this rectangularization, we identify a topological index ν that only depends on symmetry. Another distinct consequence of the rectangularization is the observation, for any coupling to the bath, of purely real topological modes in the Liouvillian. The level statistics of these real modes agree with that of the corresponding random matrix ensemble and therefore can be employed to characterize the four topological symmetry classes. In the limit of weak coupling to the bath, topological modes govern the approach to equilibrium, which may enable a direct path for experimental confirmation of topology in dissipative many-body quantum chaotic systems.