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arXiv:2401.17211 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Quantum dynamics in one and two dimensions via the recursion method

Filipp Gennadevich Uskov, Oleg Valentinovich Lychkovskiy

Published Apr 1, 2024• 19 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We report an implementation of the recursion method that addresses quantum many-body dynamics in the nonperturbative regime. The method essentially amounts to constructing a Lanczos basis in the space of operators and solving coupled Heisenberg equations in this basis. The reported implementation has two key ingredients: a computer-algebraic routine for the symbolic calculation of nested commutators and a procedure to extrapolate the sequence of Lanczos coefficients according to the universal operator growth hypothesis. We apply the method to calculate infinite-temperature correlation functions for spin-$1/2$ systems on one- and two-dimensional lattices. In two dimensions the accessible timescale is large enough to essentially embrace the relaxation to equilibrium. The method allows one to accurately calculate transport coefficients. As an illustration, we compute the diffusion constant for the transverse-field Ising model on a square lattice.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.109.l140301

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We report an implementation of the recursion method that addresses quantum many-body dynamics in the nonperturbative regime. The method essentially amounts to constructing a Lanczos basis in the space of operators and solving coupled Heisenberg equations in this basis. The reported implementation has two key ingredients: a computer-algebraic routine for the symbolic calculation of nested commutators and a procedure to extrapolate the sequence of Lanczos coefficients according to the universal operator growth hypothesis. We apply the method to calculate infinite-temperature correlation functions for spin-1/21/21/2 systems on one- and two-dimensional lattices. In two dimensions the accessible timescale is large enough to essentially embrace the relaxation to equilibrium. The method allows one to accurately calculate transport coefficients. As an illustration, we compute the diffusion constant for the transverse-field Ising model on a square lattice.
The recursion method, which solves coupled Heisenberg equations in a Lanczos operator basis, has recently emerged as a powerful nonperturbative tool for computing dynamical correlation functions in strongly correlated two- and three-dimensional quantum many-body systems. Motivated by this success, we investigate whether the method can be extended to expectation values of observables following a quantum quench. We find that such an extension encounters an obstacle absent in the computation of dynamical correlation functions. The latter are fully determined by the Lanczos coefficients b_n b n , which in generic systems exhibit universal behavior, enabling reliable extrapolation from the first few dozens of explicitly computed coefficients. In contrast, quench dynamics additionally requires “quench coefficients” c_n c n , defined as overlaps of Lanczos basis operators with the initial state. We show that, unlike the Lanczos coefficients, the quench coefficients exhibit no universal structure and cannot be reliably extrapolated, thereby limiting the time up to which the method yields accurate results. The behavior of quench coefficients is highly state-dependent, ranging from decaying to irregular or even growing sequences; typically, the less regular the sequence c_n c n , the shorter the accessible timescale. Nevertheless, for favorable initial states, the method remains competitive with state-of-the-art approaches. Moreover, its symbolic implementation allows a single computation to be reused across different Hamiltonian parameters and initial states, making it particularly advantageous in studies requiring extensive scans over Hamiltonian parameters or initial states.
This cumulative doctoral thesis, based on the works [P1–P5], addresses various topical concepts as well as foundational questions in the nonequilibrium physics of quantum many-body systems. Publication [P1] concerns itself with the question of time’s arrow in quantum mechanics. Based on the recursion method, we attribute autocorrelation functions of few-body observables at infinite temperature (almost) monotonously decreasing functions, constructed from temporal derivatives of the correlation function that indicate a directed approach to equilibrium. We numerically find that in chaotic models, these constructions comprise a notion of simplicity of the underlying dynamics. Addressing the ubiquity of simple relaxation dynamics in otherwise complex chaotic systems, in Ref. [P3] we introduce a scheme based on Lanczos coefficients to approximate correlation functions in the thermodynamic limit. Examining several pertinent condensed-matter type models and benchmarking with state-of-the-art numerics, we find the method to yield good results already for a low number of included Lanczos coefficients, provided that the latter exhibit a smooth and increasing structure. We underpin these findings with analytical arguments on the method’s applicability. Ref. [P2] provides an estimate on the equilibration time of such infinite-temperature correlation functions in the thermodynamic limit. Similarly to Ref. [P3], we find the estimate to capture the equilibration times very reasonably, given that the corresponding Lanczos coefficients exhibit a smooth growth. Substantiated by analytical considerations, the convergence of the estimate implies that equilibration timescales of the relaxation processes are finite and conceivably short. In Ref. [P5] we scrutinize the interpretative power of the Lanczos coefficients concerning the system’s integrability or chaoticity, operator growth and the indicativeness of physical behavior. To this end, we analytically deter- mine the Lanczos coefficients for a Majorana observable in a strictly quadratic model and illustrate that within this model any structure of the Lanczos coefficients may be realised. Different to the other works, Ref. [P4] is not cast in the language of the recursion method. Focusing on the full eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, it explores the connection between thermalization dynamics of multi-point correlation functions and the scaling of thermal free cumulants in setups mimicking a system-bath situation.
We present QCommute, a software tool implemented in C++ for symbolic computation of nested commutators between a Hamiltonian and local observables in quantum many-body spin-1/2 systems on one-, two-, and three-dimensional hypercubic lattices. The computation is performed algebraically directly in the thermodynamic limit, and the Hamiltonian parameters are kept symbolic. Importantly, this way the entire parameter space is covered in a single run. The implementation supports extensive parallelization to achieve high computational performance. QCommute can serve as a computational backend for Heisenberg-picture approaches to quantum dynamics in strongly correlated regimes, ranging from direct Taylor expansion in time to advanced techniques such as the recursion method.
We present an expansion of a many-body correlation function in a sum of pseudomodes: exponents with complex frequencies that encompass both decay and oscillations. The pseudomode expansion emerges in the framework of the Heisenberg version of the recursion method. This method essentially solves Heisenberg equations in a Lanczos tridiagonal basis constructed in the Krylov space of a given observable. To obtain pseudomodes, we first add artificial dissipation satisfying the dissipative generalization of the universal operator growth hypothesis, and then take the limit of the vanishing dissipation strength. Fast convergence of the pseudomode expansion is facilitated by the localization in the Krylov space, which is generic in the presence of dissipation and can survive the limit of the vanishing dissipation strength. As an illustration, we present pseudomode expansions of infinite-temperature autocorrelation functions in the quantum Ising and XXXXXX spin-1/21/21/2 models on the square lattice. It turns out that it is enough to take a few first pseudomodes to obtain a good approximation to the correlation function.
Understanding the transport behavior of quantum many-body systems constitutes an important physical endeavor, both experimentally and theoretically. While a reliable classification into normal and anomalous dynamics is known to be notoriously difficult for a given microscopic model, even the seemingly simpler evaluation of transport coefficients in diffusive systems continues to be a hard task in practice. This fact has motivated the development and application of various sophisticated methods and is also the main issue of this paper. We particularly take a barely used strategy, which is based on the recursion method, and demonstrate that this strategy allows for accurate calculation of diffusion constants for different paradigmatic examples, including magnetization transport in nonintegrable spin-1/21/21/2 chains and ladders as well as energy transport in the mixed-field Ising model in one dimension.
We present QCommute, a software tool implemented in C++ for symbolic computation of nested commutators between a Hamiltonian and local observables in quantum many-body spin- 1/2 1 / 2 systems on one-, two-, and three-dimensional hypercubic lattices. The computation is performed algebraically directly in the thermodynamic limit, and the Hamiltonian parameters are kept symbolic. Importantly, this way the entire parameter space is covered in a single run. The implementation supports extensive parallelization to achieve high computational performance. QCommute can serve as a computational backend for Heisenberg-picture approaches to quantum dynamics in strongly correlated regimes, ranging from direct Taylor expansion in time to advanced techniques such as the recursion method.