Abstract We study the consequences of having translational invariance in space and time in many-body quantum chaotic systems. We consider ensembles of random quantum circuits as minimal models of translational invariant many-body quantum chaotic systems. We evaluate the spectral form factor as a sum over many-body Feynman diagrams in the limit of large local Hilbert space dimension q. At sufficiently large t, diagrams corresponding to rigid translations dominate, reproducing the random matrix theory (RMT) behaviour. At finite t, we show that translational invariance introduces additional mechanisms via two novel Feynman diagrams which delay the emergence of RMT. Our analytics suggests the existence of exact scaling forms which describe the approach to RMT behavior in the scaling limit where both t and L are large while the ratio between L and LTh(t), the many-body Thouless length, is fixed. We numerically demonstrate, with simulations of two distinct circuit models, that the resulting scaling functions are universal in the scaling limit.
Abstract We study the consequences of having translational invariance in space and time in many-body quantum chaotic systems. We consider ensembles of random quantum circuits as minimal models of translational invariant many-body quantum chaotic systems. We evaluate the spectral form factor as a sum over many-body Feynman diagrams in the limit of large local Hilbert space dimension q. At sufficiently large t, diagrams corresponding to rigid translations dominate, reproducing the random matrix theory (RMT) behaviour. At finite t, we show that translational invariance introduces additional mechanisms via two novel Feynman diagrams which delay the emergence of RMT. Our analytics suggests the existence of exact scaling forms which describe the approach to RMT behavior in the scaling limit where both t and L are large while the ratio between L and LTh(t), the many-body Thouless length, is fixed. We numerically demonstrate, with simulations of two distinct circuit models, that the resulting scaling functions are universal in the scaling limit.
We show that non-Hermitian Ginibre random matrix behaviors emerge in spatially extended many-body quantum chaotic systems in the space direction, just as Hermitian random matrix behaviors emerge in chaotic systems in the time direction. Starting with translational invariant models, which can be associated with dual transfer matrices with complex-valued spectra, we show that the linear ramp of the spectral form factor necessitates that the dual spectra have nontrivial correlations, which in fact fall under the universality class of the Ginibre ensemble, demonstrated by computing the level spacing distribution and the dissipative spectral form factor. As a result of this connection, the exact spectral form factor for the Ginibre ensemble can be used to universally describe the spectral form factor for translational invariant many-body quantum chaotic systems in the scaling limit where t and L are large, while the ratio between L and L_{Th}, the many-body Thouless length is fixed. With appropriate variations of Ginibre models, we analytically demonstrate that our claim generalizes to models without translational invariance as well. The emergence of the Ginibre ensemble is a genuine consequence of the strongly interacting and spatially extended nature of the quantum chaotic systems we consider, unlike the traditional emergence of Hermitian random matrix ensembles.
We investigate universal signatures of quantum chaos in the presence of time reversal symmetry (TRS) in generic many body quantum chaotic systems (gMBQCs). We study three classes of minimal models of gMBQCs with TRS, realized through random quantum circuits with (i) local TRS, (ii) global TRS, and (iii) TRS combined with discrete time-translation symmetry. In large local Hilbert space dimension q, we derive the emergence of random matrix theory (RMT) universality in the spectral form factor (SFF) at times larger than the Thouless time tTh, which diverges with system sizes in gMBQCs. At times before tTh, we identify universal behaviour beyond RMT by deriving explicit scaling functions of SFF in the thermodynamic limit. In particular, in the simplest non-trivial setting - preserving global TRS while breaking time translation symmetry - we show that the SFF is mapped to the partition function of an emergent classical ferromagnetic Ising model, where the Ising spins correspond to the time-parallel and time-reversed pairings of Feynman paths, and external magnetic fields are induced by TRS-breaking mechanisms. Without relying on the large-q limit, we develop a second independent derivation of the Ising scaling behaviour of SFF using space-time duality and parity symmetric non-Hermitian Ginibre ensembles. Moreover, we show that many body effects originating from time-reversed pairings of Feynman paths manifest in the two-point autocorrelation function (2PAF), the out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC), and the partial spectral form factor - quantities sensitive to both eigenvalue and eigenstate correlations. We establish that the fluctuations of 2PAF are governed by an emergent three-state Potts model, leading to an exponential scaling with the operator support size, at a rate set by the three-state Potts model. [See full abstract in the paper]
Phenomena in quantum chaotic systems such as spectral fluctuations are known to be described remarkably well by the random matrix theory (RMT) in small energy intervals and over large time scales. However, in exchange for analytical tractability, RMT has been constructed to leave out an important element of realistic physical systems { the notion of locality. Since quantum information propagates at a finite speed in a spatially-extended quantum chaotic system, there exists time scales before which RMT is effective. How do we describe the non-equilibrium quantum dynamics at intermediate timescales which are much longer than the local relaxation time but too short for RMT to apply? What are the signatures of many-body quantum chaotic systems beyond the description of RMT? In this thesis, we address these questions by analysing minimal models that incorporate a notion of locality and at the same time retain some analytical tractability of RMT. More specifically, we study Floquet quantum circuits that are random in space but periodic in time. These circuits consist of local and random quantum gates that act on a q-state `spin' at each site. After a brief review of classical chaos, quantum chaos, and quantum circuits in Chapter 1, we present three main results. In Chapter 2, we formulate a diagrammatical approach for computing ensemble averages of observables over random unitary circuits, and derive exact results on spectral statistics and dynamical observables for a Floquet circuit in the large-q limit. In Chapter 3, we further investigate the spectral statistics in spatiallyextended many-body quantum chaotic systems by computing the spectral form factor K(t) analytically and numerically. We show that K(t) follows the RMT description at times longer than the Thouless time tTh and identify the scaling of tTh at the large-q limit of a Floquet circuit. In Chapter 4, we discuss eigenstate correlations for spatially-extended many-body quantum chaotic systems, in terms of the statistical properties of matrix elements of local observables. While the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) is known to give an excellent description of these quantities, the phenomenon of scrambling and the butterfly effect imply structure beyond ETH. We determine analytically and verify numerically the universal form of this structure at long distances and small eigenvalue separations for Floquet systems.
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 most general and versatile defining feature of quantum chaotic systems is that they possess an energy spectrum with correlations universally described by random matrix theory (RMT). This feature can be exhibited by systems with a well-defined classical limit as well as by systems with no classical correspondence, such as locally interacting spins or fermions. Despite great phenomenological success, a general mechanism explaining the emergence of RMT without reference to semiclassical concepts is still missing. Here we provide the example of a quantum many-body system with no semiclassical limit (no large parameter) where the emergence of RMT spectral correlations is proven exactly. Specifically, we consider a periodically driven Ising model and write the Fourier transform of spectral density's two-point function, the spectral form factor, in terms of a partition function of a two-dimensional classical Ising model featuring a space-time duality. We show that the self-dual cases provide a minimal model of many-body quantum chaos, where the spectral form factor is demonstrated to match RMT for all values of the integer time variable t in the thermodynamic limit. In particular, we rigorously prove RMT form factor for an odd t, while we formulate a precise conjecture for an even t. The results imply ergodicity for any finite amount of disorder in the longitudinal field, rigorously excluding the possibility of many-body localization. Our method provides a novel route for obtaining exact nonperturbative results in nonintegrable systems.
We numerically study the spectral statistics of open quantum many-body systems (OQMBS) as signatures of quantum chaos (or the lack thereof), using the dissipative spectral form factor (DSFF), a generalization of the spectral form factor to complex spectra. We show that the DSFF of chaotic OQMBS generically displays the quadratic ramp-plateau behaviour of the Ginibre ensemble from random matrix theory, in contrast to the linear ramp-plateau behaviour of the Gaussian ensemble in closed quantum systems. Furthermore, in the presence of many-body interactions, such RMT behaviour emerges only after a time scale τdev, which generally increases with system size for sufficiently large system size, and can be identified as the non-Hermitian analogue of the many-body Thouless time. The universality of the random matrix theory behavior is demonstrated by surveying twelve models of OQMBS, including random Kraus circuits (quantum channels) and random Lindbladians (Liouvillians) in several symmetry classes, as well as Lindbladians of paradigmatic models such as the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK), XXZ, and the transverse field Ising models. We devise an unfolding and filtering procedure to remove variations of the averaged density of states which would otherwise hide the universal RMT-like signatures in the DSFF for chaotic OQMBS. Beyond chaotic OQMBS, we study the spectral statistics of non-chaotic OQMBS, specifically the integrable XX model and a system in the many-body localized (MBL) regime in the presence of dissipation, which exhibit DSFF behaviours distinct from the ramp-plateau behaviour of random matrix theory. Lastly, we study the DSFF of Lindbladians with the Hamiltonian term set to zero, i.e. only the jump operators are present, and demonstrate that the results of RMT universality and scaling of many-body Thouless time survive even without coherent evolution.