Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2112.07631 · Physical Review A

Quantum memory at an eigenstate phase transition in a weakly chaotic model

M. Rey Lambert, Shan-Wen Tsai, Shane P. Kelly

Published Jul 12, 2022• 5 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study a fully connected quantum spin model resonantly coupled to a small environment of noninteracting spins, and investigate how initial state properties are remembered at long times. We find memory of initial state properties, in addition to the total energy, that are not conserved by the dynamics. This memory occurs in the middle of the spectrum where an eigenstate quantum phase transition (ESQPT) occurs as a function of energy. The memory effect at that energy in the spectrum is robust to system-environment coupling until the coupling changes the energy of the ESQPT. This work demonstrates the effect of ESQPT memory as independent of integrability and suggests a wider generality of this mechanism for preventing thermalization at ESQPTs.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.106.012206

Related papers

Thermalization and its breakdown for a large nonlinear spin

Shane P. Kelly, Eddy Timmermans, Shan-Wen Tsai

By developing a semiclassical analysis based on the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, we determine the long time behavior of a large spin evolving with a nonlinear Hamiltonian. Despite integrable classical dynamics, we find the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis for the diagonal matrix elements of observables is satisfied in the majority of eigenstates, and thermalization of long time averaged observables is generic. The exception is an unusual mechanism for the breakdown of thermalization based on an unstable fixed point in the classical dynamics. Using the semiclassical analysis, we derive how the equilibrium values of observables encode properties of the initial state. This analysis shows an unusual memory effect in which the remembered initial state property is not conserved in the integrable classical dynamics. We conclude with a discussion of relevant experiments and the potential generality of this mechanism for long time memory and the breakdown of thermalization.

arXiv:1910.03138•Physical Review A•Nov 6, 2020•15 citations

Effects of excited state quantum phase transitions on system dynamics

Francisco Pérez-Bernal, Léa Ferreira dos Santos

This work is concerned with the excited state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) defined in Ann. Phys. 323, 1106 (2008). In many‐body models that exhibit such transitions, the ground state quantum phase transition (QPT) occurs in parallel with a singularity in the energy spectrum that propagates to higher energies as the control parameter increases beyond the QPT critical point. The analysis of the spectrum has been a main tool for the detection of these ESQPTs. Studies of the effects of this transition on the system dynamics are more limited. Here, we extend our previous works and show that the evolution of an initial state with energy close to the ESQPT critical point may be extremely slow. This result is surprising, because it may take place in systems with long‐range interactions, where the dynamics is usually expected to be very fast. A timely example is the one‐dimensional spin‐1/2 model with infinite‐range Ising interaction studied in experiments with ion traps. Its Hamiltonian has a U(2) algebraic structure. More generally, the slow dynamics described here occurs in two‐level bosonic or fermionic models with pairing interactions and a Hamiltonian exhibiting a QPT between its limiting and dynamical symmetries. In this work, we compare the results for , and 3.

arXiv:1604.06851•Fortschritte der Physik•Jun 23, 2016•36 citations

Effects of the interplay between initial state and Hamiltonian on the thermalization of isolated quantum many-body systems

Eduardo Jonathan Torres-Herrera, Léa Ferreira dos Santos

We explore the role of the initial state on the onset of thermalization in isolated quantum many-body systems after a quench. The initial state is an eigenstate of an initial Hamiltonian ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{H}}_{I}$ and it evolves according to a different final Hamiltonian ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{H}}_{F}$. If the initial state has a chaotic structure with respect to ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{H}}_{F}$, i.e., if it fills the energy shell ergodically, thermalization is certain to occur. This happens when ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{H}}_{I}$ is a full random matrix, because its states projected onto ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{H}}_{F}$ are fully delocalized. The results for the observables then agree with those obtained with thermal states at infinite temperature. However, finite real systems with few-body interactions, as the ones considered here, are deprived of fully extended eigenstates, even when described by a nonintegrable Hamiltonian. We examine how the initial state delocalizes as it gets closer to the middle of the spectrum of ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{H}}_{F}$, causing the observables to approach thermal averages, be the models integrable or chaotic. Our numerical studies are based on initial states with energies that cover the entire lower half of the spectrum of one-dimensional Heisenberg spin-1/2 systems.

arXiv:1305.6937•Physical Review E•Oct 11, 2013•49 citations

Initial-state dependence of the quench dynamics in integrable quantum systems. III. Chaotic states

Kai He, Marcos Rigol

We study sudden quantum quenches in which the initial states are selected to be either eigenstates of an integrable Hamiltonian that is nonmappable to a noninteracting one or a nonintegrable Hamiltonian, while the Hamiltonian after the quench is always integrable and mappable to a noninteracting one. By studying weighted energy densities and entropies, we show that quenches starting from nonintegrable (chaotic) eigenstates lead to an ``ergodic'' sampling of the eigenstates of the final Hamiltonian, while those starting from the integrable eigenstates do not (or at least it is not apparent for the system sizes accessible to us). This goes in parallel with the fact that the distribution of conserved quantities in the initial states is thermal in the nonintegrable cases and nonthermal in the integrable ones, and means that, in general, thermalization occurs in integrable systems when the quench starts form an eigenstate of a nonintegrable Hamiltonian (away from the edges of the spectrum), while it fails (or requires larger system sizes than those studied here to become apparent) for quenches starting at integrable points. We test those conclusions by studying the momentum distribution function of hard-core bosons after a quench.

arXiv:1301.5904•Physical Review A•Apr 12, 2013•32 citations

Quantum quench influenced by an excited-state phase transition

P. Pérez-Fernández, Pavel Cejnar, J. M. Arias +3 more

We analyze excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) in three schematic (integrable and nonintegrable) models describing a single-mode bosonic field coupled to a collection of atoms. It is shown that the presence of the ESQPT in these models affects the quantum relaxation processes following an abrupt quench in the control parameter. Clear-cut evidence of the ESQPT effects is presented in integrable models, while in a nonintegrable model the evidence is blurred due to chaotic behavior of the system in the region around the critical energy.

arXiv:1012.3001•Physical Review A•Mar 3, 2011•102 citations

Excited-state quantum phase transitions

Pavel Cejnar, Pavel Stránský, Michal Macek +1 more

Abstract We review the effects of excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) in interacting many-body systems with finite numbers of collective degrees of freedom. We classify typical ESQPT signatures in the spectra of energy eigenstates with respect to the underlying classical dynamics and outline a variety of quantum systems in which they occur. We describe thermodynamic and dynamic consequences of ESQPTs, like those in microcanonical thermodynamics, quantum quench dynamics, and in the response to nearly adiabatic or periodic driving. We hint at some generalizations of the ESQPT concept in periodic lattices and in resonant tunneling systems.

arXiv:2011.01662•Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical•Jan 26, 2021•122 citations
We study a fully connected quantum spin model resonantly coupled to a small environment of noninteracting spins, and investigate how initial state properties are remembered at long times. We find memory of initial state properties, in addition to the total energy, that are not conserved by the dynamics. This memory occurs in the middle of the spectrum where an eigenstate quantum phase transition (ESQPT) occurs as a function of energy. The memory effect at that energy in the spectrum is robust to system-environment coupling until the coupling changes the energy of the ESQPT. This work demonstrates the effect of ESQPT memory as independent of integrability and suggests a wider generality of this mechanism for preventing thermalization at ESQPTs.
By developing a semiclassical analysis based on the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, we determine the long time behavior of a large spin evolving with a nonlinear Hamiltonian. Despite integrable classical dynamics, we find the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis for the diagonal matrix elements of observables is satisfied in the majority of eigenstates, and thermalization of long time averaged observables is generic. The exception is an unusual mechanism for the breakdown of thermalization based on an unstable fixed point in the classical dynamics. Using the semiclassical analysis, we derive how the equilibrium values of observables encode properties of the initial state. This analysis shows an unusual memory effect in which the remembered initial state property is not conserved in the integrable classical dynamics. We conclude with a discussion of relevant experiments and the potential generality of this mechanism for long time memory and the breakdown of thermalization.
This work is concerned with the excited state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) defined in Ann. Phys. 323, 1106 (2008). In many‐body models that exhibit such transitions, the ground state quantum phase transition (QPT) occurs in parallel with a singularity in the energy spectrum that propagates to higher energies as the control parameter increases beyond the QPT critical point. The analysis of the spectrum has been a main tool for the detection of these ESQPTs. Studies of the effects of this transition on the system dynamics are more limited. Here, we extend our previous works and show that the evolution of an initial state with energy close to the ESQPT critical point may be extremely slow. This result is surprising, because it may take place in systems with long‐range interactions, where the dynamics is usually expected to be very fast. A timely example is the one‐dimensional spin‐1/2 model with infinite‐range Ising interaction studied in experiments with ion traps. Its Hamiltonian has a U(2) algebraic structure. More generally, the slow dynamics described here occurs in two‐level bosonic or fermionic models with pairing interactions and a Hamiltonian exhibiting a QPT between its limiting and dynamical symmetries. In this work, we compare the results for , and 3.
We explore the role of the initial state on the onset of thermalization in isolated quantum many-body systems after a quench. The initial state is an eigenstate of an initial Hamiltonian ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{H}}_{I}$ and it evolves according to a different final Hamiltonian ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{H}}_{F}$. If the initial state has a chaotic structure with respect to ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{H}}_{F}$, i.e., if it fills the energy shell ergodically, thermalization is certain to occur. This happens when ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{H}}_{I}$ is a full random matrix, because its states projected onto ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{H}}_{F}$ are fully delocalized. The results for the observables then agree with those obtained with thermal states at infinite temperature. However, finite real systems with few-body interactions, as the ones considered here, are deprived of fully extended eigenstates, even when described by a nonintegrable Hamiltonian. We examine how the initial state delocalizes as it gets closer to the middle of the spectrum of ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{H}}_{F}$, causing the observables to approach thermal averages, be the models integrable or chaotic. Our numerical studies are based on initial states with energies that cover the entire lower half of the spectrum of one-dimensional Heisenberg spin-1/2 systems.
We study sudden quantum quenches in which the initial states are selected to be either eigenstates of an integrable Hamiltonian that is nonmappable to a noninteracting one or a nonintegrable Hamiltonian, while the Hamiltonian after the quench is always integrable and mappable to a noninteracting one. By studying weighted energy densities and entropies, we show that quenches starting from nonintegrable (chaotic) eigenstates lead to an ``ergodic'' sampling of the eigenstates of the final Hamiltonian, while those starting from the integrable eigenstates do not (or at least it is not apparent for the system sizes accessible to us). This goes in parallel with the fact that the distribution of conserved quantities in the initial states is thermal in the nonintegrable cases and nonthermal in the integrable ones, and means that, in general, thermalization occurs in integrable systems when the quench starts form an eigenstate of a nonintegrable Hamiltonian (away from the edges of the spectrum), while it fails (or requires larger system sizes than those studied here to become apparent) for quenches starting at integrable points. We test those conclusions by studying the momentum distribution function of hard-core bosons after a quench.
We analyze excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) in three schematic (integrable and nonintegrable) models describing a single-mode bosonic field coupled to a collection of atoms. It is shown that the presence of the ESQPT in these models affects the quantum relaxation processes following an abrupt quench in the control parameter. Clear-cut evidence of the ESQPT effects is presented in integrable models, while in a nonintegrable model the evidence is blurred due to chaotic behavior of the system in the region around the critical energy.
Abstract We review the effects of excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) in interacting many-body systems with finite numbers of collective degrees of freedom. We classify typical ESQPT signatures in the spectra of energy eigenstates with respect to the underlying classical dynamics and outline a variety of quantum systems in which they occur. We describe thermodynamic and dynamic consequences of ESQPTs, like those in microcanonical thermodynamics, quantum quench dynamics, and in the response to nearly adiabatic or periodic driving. We hint at some generalizations of the ESQPT concept in periodic lattices and in resonant tunneling systems.