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arXiv:2307.05681 · Physical review. E

Timescales of quantum and classical chaotic spin models evolving toward equilibrium

F. Borgonovi, Felix M. Izrailev, Léa Ferreira dos Santos

Published Apr 14, 2025• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We investigate quench dynamics in a one-dimensional spin model, comparing both quantum and classical descriptions. Our primary focus is on the different timescales involved in the evolution of the observables as they approach statistical relaxation. Numerical simulations, supported by semianalytical analysis, reveal that the relaxation of single-particle energies (global quantity) and on-site magnetization (local observable) occurs on a timescale independent of the system size L. This relaxation process is equally well-described by classical equations of motion and quantum solutions, demonstrating excellent quantum-classical correspondence, provided the system is strongly chaotic. The correspondence persists even for small quantum spin values (S=1), where a semiclassical approximation is not applicable. Conversely, for the participation ratio, which characterizes the initial state spread in the many-body Hilbert space and which lacks a classical analog, the relaxation timescale is system-size dependent.

DOI
10.1103/physreve.111.044210

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We investigate quench dynamics in a one-dimensional spin model, comparing both quantum and classical descriptions. Our primary focus is on the different timescales involved in the evolution of the observables as they approach statistical relaxation. Numerical simulations, supported by semianalytical analysis, reveal that the relaxation of single-particle energies (global quantity) and on-site magnetization (local observable) occurs on a timescale independent of the system size L. This relaxation process is equally well-described by classical equations of motion and quantum solutions, demonstrating excellent quantum-classical correspondence, provided the system is strongly chaotic. The correspondence persists even for small quantum spin values (S=1), where a semiclassical approximation is not applicable. Conversely, for the participation ratio, which characterizes the initial state spread in the many-body Hilbert space and which lacks a classical analog, the relaxation timescale is system-size dependent.
Abstract We consider time-dependent relaxation of observables in quantum systems of chaotic and regular type. Using statistical arguments and exact numerical solutions we show that the spread of the initial wave function in the Hilbert space and the main characteristics of evolution of observables have certain generic features. The study compares examples of regular dynamics, a completely chaotic case of the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble, a bosonic system with random interactions, and a fully realistic case of the time evolution of various initial non-stationary states in the nuclear shell model. In the case of the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble we show that the survival probability obtained analytically also fully defines the relaxation timescale of observables. This is not the case in general. Using the realistic nuclear shell model and the quadrupole moment as an observable we demonstrate that the relaxation time is significantly longer than defined by the survival probability of the initial state. The full analysis does not show the presence of an analog of the Lyapunov exponent characteristic for examples of classical chaos.
A major open question in studies of nonequilibrium quantum dynamics is the identification of the time scales involved in the relaxation process of isolated quantum systems that have many interacting particles. We demonstrate that long time scales can be analytically found by analyzing dynamical manifestations of spectral correlations. Using this approach, we show that the Thouless time tTh{t}_{\text{Th}}tTh​ and the relaxation time tR{t}_{\text{R}}tR​ increase exponentially with system size. We define tTh{t}_{\text{Th}}tTh​ as the time at which the spread of the initial state in the many-body Hilbert space is complete and verify that it agrees with the inverse of the Thouless energy. tTh{t}_{\text{Th}}tTh​ marks the point beyond which the dynamics acquire universal features, while relaxation happens later when the evolution reaches a stationary state. In chaotic systems, ${t}_{\text{Th}}\ensuremath{\ll}{t}_{\text{R}}$, while for systems approaching a many-body localized phase, ${t}_{\text{Th}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{t}_{\text{R}}$. Our analytical results for tTh{t}_{\text{Th}}tTh​ and tR{t}_{\text{R}}tR​ are obtained for the survival probability, which is a global quantity. We show numerically that the same time scales appear also in the evolution of the spin autocorrelation function, which is an experimental local observable. Our studies are carried out for realistic many-body quantum models. The results are compared with those for random matrices.
We study the quantum-classical correspondence for systems with interacting spin particles that are strongly chaotic in the classical limit. This is done in the presence of constants of motion associated with the fixed angular momenta of individual spins. Our analysis of the Lyapunov spectra reveals that the largest Lyapunov exponent agrees with the Lyapunov exponent that determines the local instability of each individual spin moving under the influence of all other spins. Within this picture, we introduce a rigorous and simple test of ergodicity for the spin motion, and use it to identify when classical chaos is both strong and global in phase space. In the quantum domain, our analysis of the Hamiltonian matrix in a proper representation allows us to obtain the conditions for the onset of quantum chaos as a function of the model parameters. From the comparison between the quantum and classical domains, we demonstrate that quantum quantities, such as the local density of states (LDoS) and the shape of the chaotic eigenfunctions written in the noninteracting many-body basis, have well-defined classical counterparts. We also find a relationship between the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy and the width of the LDoS, which is useful for studies of many-body dynamics.
We study the onset of chaos and statistical relaxation in two isolated dynamical quantum systems of interacting spins 1/2, one of which is integrable and the other chaotic. Our approach to identifying the emergence of chaos is based on the level of delocalization of the eigenstates with respect to the energy shell, the latter being determined by the interaction strength between particles or quasiparticles. We also discuss how the onset of chaos may be anticipated by a careful analysis of the Hamiltonian matrices, even before diagonalization. We find that despite differences between the two models, their relaxation processes following a quench are very similar and can be described analytically with a theory previously developed for systems with two-body random interactions. Our results imply that global features of statistical relaxation depend on the degree of spread of the eigenstates within the energy shell and may happen to both integrable and nonintegrable systems.
The real-time dynamics of equal-site correlation functions is studied for one-dimensional spin models with quenched disorder.Focusing on infinite temperature, we present a comparison between the dynamics of models with different quantum numbers S = 1 2 , 1, 3 2 , as well as of chains consisting of classical spins.Based on this comparison as well as by analyzing the statistics of energy-level spacings, we show that the putative many-body localization transition is shifted to considerably stronger values of disorder for increasing S. In this context, we introduce an effective disorder strength W eff , which provides a mapping between the dynamics for different spin quantum numbers.For small W eff , we show that the real-time correlations become essentially independent of S, and are moreover very well captured by the dynamics of classical spins.Especially for S = 3 2 , the agreement between quantum and classical dynamics is remarkably observed even for very strong values of disorder.This behavior also reflects itself in the corresponding spectral functions, which are obtained via a Fourier transform from the time to the frequency domain.As an aside, we also comment on the self-averaging properties of the correlation function at weak and strong disorder.Our work sheds light on the correspondence between quantum and classical dynamics at high temperatures and extends our understanding of the dynamics in disordered spin chains beyond the well-studied case of S = 1 2 .
Systems with long-range interactions, while relaxing towards equilibrium, sometimes get trapped in long-lived non-Boltzmann quasistationary states (QSS) which have lifetimes that grow algebraically with the system size. Such states have been observed in models of globally coupled particles that move under Hamiltonian dynamics either on a unit circle or on a unit spherical surface. Here, we address the ubiquity of QSS in long-range systems by considering a different dynamical setting. Thus, we consider an anisotropic Heisenberg model consisting of classical Heisenberg spins with mean-field interactions and evolving under classical spin dynamics. Our analysis of the corresponding Vlasov equation for time evolution of the phase space distribution shows that in a certain energy interval, relaxation of a class of initial states occurs over a timescale which grows algebraically with the system size. We support these findings by extensive numerical simulations. This work further supports the generality of occurrence of QSS in long-range systems evolving under Hamiltonian dynamics.