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arXiv:2006.00728

The Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model and free Majorana variational states

Daniel Ish, Mark Srednicki

Published Jun 1, 2020• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Through a mixture of analytic and numerical techniques, we explore the optimal approximation by a free Majorana state to individual disorder realizations of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model, along with a generalization of it. We elucidate the properties of the known time-reversal symmetry breaking phase in the generalized model, finding strong evidence of "spin glass" order. For the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model itself, our results are inconclusive but suggest a similar order may be present at zero temperature.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2006.00728

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Through a mixture of analytic and numerical techniques, we explore the optimal approximation by a free Majorana state to individual disorder realizations of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model, along with a generalization of it. We elucidate the properties of the known time-reversal symmetry breaking phase in the generalized model, finding strong evidence of "spin glass" order. For the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model itself, our results are inconclusive but suggest a similar order may be present at zero temperature.
We study a generalization of `Yukawa models' in which Majorana fermions, interacting via all-to-all random couplings as in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model, are parametrically coupled to disordered bosonic degrees of freedom described by a quantum p−p-p−spin model. The latter has its own non-trivial dynamics leading to quantum paramagnetic (or liquid) and glassy phases. At low temperatures, this setup results in SYK behavior within each metastable state of a rugged bosonic free energy landscape, the effective fermionic couplings being different for each metastable state. We show that the boson-fermion coupling enhances the stability of the quantum spin-glass phase and strongly modifies the imaginary-time Green's functions of both sets of degrees of freedom. In particular, in the quantum spin glass phase, the imaginary-time dynamics is turned from a fast exponential decay characteristic of a gapped phase into a much slower dynamics. In the quantum paramagnetic phase, on the other hand, the fermions' imaginary-time dynamics get strongly modified and the critical SYK behavior is washed away.
The Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model is zero-dimensional model simulating quantum chaos using interacting Majorana fermions.Previously proposals have been made to realize the SYK model in fermionic systems that can support majorana zero modes. In this work, we simulate the SYK model in a Kitaev spin chain, where zero modes also exist in the ground state from the fermionic representation of spins. By adding other interactions as perturbations, we lift the degenerate majorana zero modes and obatin an effective SYK interactions. Although the majorana fermions are nonlocal in forms of spin operators, we show that the out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC) of the majorana fermions can be approximately simulated in forms of spin operators. Our proposal sheds light in simulating the fermonic SKY model and the related physics in purely bosonic systems.
The authors study in detail the quantum mechanical model of NNN Majorana fermions with random interactions of a few fermions at a time (Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model) in the large NNN limit. At low energies, the system is strongly interacting and an emergent conformal symmetry develops. Performing technical calculations, the authors elucidate a number of properties of the model near the conformal point.
We study the original Sachdev-Ye (SY) model in its Majorana fermion representation which can be called the two indices Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model. Its advantage over the original SY model in the $ SU(M) $ complex fermion representation is that it need no local constraints, so a $1/M $ expansion can be more easily performed. Its advantage over the 4 indices SYK model is that it has only two site indices $ J_{ij} $ instead of four indices $ J_{ijkl} $, so it may fit the bulk string theory better. By performing a $1/M $ expansion at $ N=\infty $, we show that a quantum spin liquid (QSL) state remains stable at a finite $ M $. The $ 1/M $ corrections are exactly marginal, so the system remains conformably invariant at any finite $ M $. The 4-point out of time correlation ( OTOC ) shows quantum chaos neither at $ N=\infty $ at any finite $ M $, nor at $ M=\infty $ at any finite $ N $. By looking at the replica off-diagonal channel, we find there is a quantum spin glass (QSG) instability at an exponentially suppressed temperature in $ M $. We work out a criterion for the two large numbers $ N $ and $ M $ to satisfy so that the QSG instability may be avoided. We speculate that at any finite $ N $, the quantum chaos appears at the order of $ 1/M^{0} $, which is the subleading order in the $ 1/M $ expansion. When the $ 1/N $ quantum fluctuations at any finite $ M $ are considered, from a general reparametrization symmetry breaking point of view, we argue that the eThis work may motivate future works to study the possible new gravity dual of the 2 indices SYK model.ffective action should still be described by the Schwarzian one, the OTOC shows maximal quantum chaos.
A brief survey of some random quantum models with infinite-range couplings is presented, ranging from the quantum Ising model to the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model. The Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model was the first to realize an extensive zero temperature entropy without requiring an exponentially large ground state degeneracy. This phenomenon is closely linked to the absence of a particle-like interpretation of its low energy spectrum--its spectral functions are not those of bosons or fermions but are instead "Planckian", meaning they are universal functions of energy/temperature. A remarkable consequence of these properties is that the SYK model provides an effective low energy theory of non-supersymmetric charged or rotating black holes in 3+1 dimensions, leading to new results on the density of many-body quantum states of such black holes. For applications to non-quasiparticle metallic states of quantum materials, an extension of the SYK model, known as the two-dimensional Yukawa-Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model, is required. The 2dYSYK model describes quantum phase transitions in metals with spatial inhomogeneity in the position of the quantum critical point. This extension has led to a universal theory of the strange metal state observed in numerous correlated electron compounds, including copper-oxide based high temperature superconductors.