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arXiv:2404.10057 · Physical Review Research

Universal distributions of overlaps from generic dynamics in quantum many-body systems

Alexios Christopoulos, Amos Chan, Andrea De Luca

Published Jul 2, 2025• 5 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study the distribution of overlaps with the computational basis of a quantum state generated under generic quantum many-body chaotic dynamics, without conserved quantities, for a finite time t . We argue that, scaling time logarithmically with the system size t ∝ log L , the overlap distribution converges to a universal form in the thermodynamic limit, forming a one-parameter family that generalizes the celebrated Porter-Thomas distribution. The form of the overlap distribution only depends on the spatial dimensionality and, remarkably, on the boundary conditions. This picture is justified in general by a mapping to Ginibre ensemble of random matrices and corroborated by the exact solution of a random quantum circuit. Our results derive from an analysis of arbitrary overlap moments, enabling the reconstruction of the distribution. Our predictions also apply to Floquet circuits, i.e., in the presence of mild quenched disorder. Finally, numerical simulations of two distinct random circuits show excellent agreement, thereby demonstrating universality.

DOI
10.1103/kl64-xnsz

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We study the distribution of overlaps with the computational basis of a quantum state generated under generic quantum many-body chaotic dynamics, without conserved quantities, for a finite time t . We argue that, scaling time logarithmically with the system size t ∝ log L , the overlap distribution converges to a universal form in the thermodynamic limit, forming a one-parameter family that generalizes the celebrated Porter-Thomas distribution. The form of the overlap distribution only depends on the spatial dimensionality and, remarkably, on the boundary conditions. This picture is justified in general by a mapping to Ginibre ensemble of random matrices and corroborated by the exact solution of a random quantum circuit. Our results derive from an analysis of arbitrary overlap moments, enabling the reconstruction of the distribution. Our predictions also apply to Floquet circuits, i.e., in the presence of mild quenched disorder. Finally, numerical simulations of two distinct random circuits show excellent agreement, thereby demonstrating universality.
Universal statistical laws are a hallmark of quantum chaos. A natural route to probing them in quantum circuits is offered by the statistics of output probabilities, which for sufficiently deep chaotic circuits approach the Porter--Thomas distribution. Here we show, theoretically and experimentally, that the approach to this limit is itself universal, and is organized into geometry-dependent universality classes. At shallow depths, growing only logarithmically with system size, we derive universal output-probability distributions that differ markedly from Porter--Thomas statistics, and we test them on a programmable superconducting processor. Two-dimensional lattices, open one-dimensional chains, and periodic rings exhibit distinct universal forms, retaining signatures of geometry and boundary topology within the same logarithmic-depth regime. Within each class, the distributions depend on only two parameters: an effective many-body Thouless scale and the accumulated number of incoherent errors. Extracting these directly from measured bitstring frequencies provides access to scrambling, entanglement growth of the target state, and global fidelity, without reconstructing or classically simulating the implemented circuit. We also identify a noise-driven transition between output statistics retaining system-wide quantum correlations and those reproducible by independent small patches. Our results establish universality beyond Porter--Thomas statistics as a quantitative tool for characterizing noisy quantum processors.
Recent studies of "deep thermalization" have revealed universal physics in quantum many-body dynamics beyond equilibration towards Gibbs states: maximally random quantum state ensembles can emerge on local subsystems, generated by measurements on their complement. In this work, we further identify a new form of universality exhibited in the "finer fingerprints" of quantum dynamics for local subsystems, induced by global unitary time-evolution. Specifically, we consider the projected Kraus ensemble, an ensemble of Kraus operators obtained by unraveling the quantum channel on a small subsystem with respect to knowledge of the classical configurations of its complement. Our central result is a one-parameter random matrix Ansatz that captures the ensemble's emergent statistical behavior along particular spacetime scalings, valid for generic 1D circuit dynamics without conservation laws: the ensemble is described by the product of a complex Ginibre random matrix and an independent log-normal random real scalar. The former encodes scrambling within the subsystem, captured by rotational invariance of the Ginibre measure, whereas the latter encodes fluctuations in the Born probabilities, arising from locality of the underlying dynamics. Our Ansatz can be established in the special cases of dynamics generated by global Haar random unitaries and dual-unitary circuits, while we motivate it for generic circuits using arguments of spacetime duality and the multiplicative ergodic theorem on long products of spatial transfer matrices. Extensive numerical simulations for random and Floquet circuit models verify these predictions. This universality in Kraus operators also provides a microscopic mechanism for deep thermalization in generic 1D quantum circuit dynamics, and has implications for local quantum information recoverability involving classical side information tied to knowledge of the bath.
We establish universal behavior in the anticoncentration properties of random quantum circuits, demonstrating its broad independence from the circuit architecture. Specifically, universality emerges in a certain scaling limit and extends beyond the leading order, incorporating subleading corrections arising from the finite system size NNN. We compute these corrections through exact calculations on ensembles of random tensor network states and corroborate the results with analytical findings in the random phase model. We then identify a heuristic framework for generic brickwork circuits, conjecturing the universality of these corrections. We further support our claim of anticoncentration universality through extensive numerical simulations, capturing the distribution of overlaps for systems up to N=64N = 64N=64 qudits and computing collision probabilities for systems up to N≤1024N \leq 1024N≤1024. Collectively, our results highlight the critical role of finite-size corrections and lead to a thorough understanding of the core phenomenology governing anticoncentration in quantum circuits.
Porter-Thomas statistics are a characteristic feature of the output distribution of random quantum states and, more broadly, chaotic quantum many-body systems. Convergence to Porter-Thomas plays a central role in random circuit sampling and experimental demonstrations of quantum advantage, where the output statistics of low-depth random quantum circuits are expected to be approximately Porter-Thomas, despite the absence of a rigorous proof of convergence. We show that the output distribution of polynomial-depth brickwork random circuits converges inverse-polynomially in total variation distance to the Porter-Thomas distribution. Specifically, consider the output probability distribution over a fixed bitstring of a local random quantum circuit, constructed from nearest-neighbor Haar random gates. Then, for any m≥0m \geq 0m≥0, the distribution corresponding to circuits of depth O(n2m+1log⁡(n))O(n^{2m+1}\log(n))O(n2m+1log(n)) is at most O(1/nm)O(1/n^m)O(1/nm) far in total variation distance from the Porter-Thomas distribution. Our proof uses moment bounds from approximate designs, analytic estimates for characteristic functions, and a local anticoncentration property for inverse moments.
The chaotic dynamics of quantum many-body systems are expected to quickly randomize any structured initial state, delocalizing it in the Fock space. In this Letter, we study the spreading of an initial product state in Hilbert space under dual-unitary dynamics, captured by the inverse participation ratios and the distribution of overlaps (bit-string probabilities). We consider the self-dual kicked Ising model, a minimal model of many-body quantum chaos that can be seen as either a periodically driven Floquet model or a dual-unitary quantum circuit. Both analytically and numerically, we show that the inverse participation ratios rapidly approach their ergodic values, corresponding to those of Haar random states, and establish the emergence of the Porter-Thomas distribution for the overlap distribution. Importantly, this convergence happens exponentially fast in time, with a timescale that is independent of system size. We inspect the effect of local perturbations that break dual unitarity and show a slowdown of the spreading in Fock space, indicating that dual-unitary circuits are maximally efficient at preparing random states. Our Letter establishes bridges between the dynamics of many-body systems and random matrix theory through the time evolution of structured initial states and finds natural applications in demonstrating a quantum advantage in random sampling and in benchmarking quantum devices.
We study the emergence over time of a universal, uniform distribution of quantum states supported on a finite subsystem, induced by projectively measuring the rest of the system. Dubbed deep thermalization , this phenomenon represents a form of equilibration in quantum many-body systems stronger than regular thermalization, which only constrains the ensemble-averaged values of observables. While there exist quantum circuit models of dynamics in one dimension where this phenomenon can be shown to arise exactly, these are special in that deep thermalization occurs at precisely the same time as regular thermalization. Here, we present an exactly-solvable model of chaotic dynamics where the two processes can be shown to occur over different time scales. The model is composed of a finite subsystem coupled to an infinite random-matrix bath through a small constriction, and highlights the role of locality and imperfect thermalization in constraining the formation of such universal wavefunction distributions. We test our analytical predictions against exact numerical simulations, finding excellent agreement.