From the quasisymmetry-group perspective [J. Ren , ], we show the universal existence of collective, coherent modes of excitations in many-body scar models in the degenerate limit, where the energy spacing in the scar tower vanishes. The number of these modes, as well as the quantum numbers carried by them, are given, not by the symmetry of the Hamiltonian, but by the quasisymmetry of the scar tower: hence the name quasi-Nambu-Goldstone modes. Based on this, we draw a concrete analogy between the paradigm of spontaneous symmetry breaking and the many-body scar physics in the degenerate limit. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
From the quasisymmetry-group perspective [J. Ren , ], we show the universal existence of collective, coherent modes of excitations in many-body scar models in the degenerate limit, where the energy spacing in the scar tower vanishes. The number of these modes, as well as the quantum numbers carried by them, are given, not by the symmetry of the Hamiltonian, but by the quasisymmetry of the scar tower: hence the name quasi-Nambu-Goldstone modes. Based on this, we draw a concrete analogy between the paradigm of spontaneous symmetry breaking and the many-body scar physics in the degenerate limit. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
In quantum systems, a subspace spanned by degenerate eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian may have higher symmetries than those of the Hamiltonian itself. When this enhanced-symmetry group can be generated from local operators, we call it a quasisymmetry group. When the group is a Lie group, an external field coupled to certain generators of the quasisymmetry group lifts the degeneracy, and results in exactly periodic dynamics within the degenerate subspace, namely, the many-body-scar dynamics (given that Hamiltonian is nonintegrable). We provide two related schemes for constructing one-dimensional spin models having on-demand quasisymmetry groups, with exact periodic evolution of a prechosen product or matrix-product state under external fields.
When global continuous symmetries are spontaneously broken, there appear gapless collective excitations called Nambu-Goldstone modes (NGMs) that govern the low-energy property of the system. The application of this famous theorem ranges from high-energy, particle physics to condensed matter and atomic physics. When a symmetry breaking occurs in systems that lack the Lorentz invariance to start with, as is usually the case in condensed matter systems, the number of resulting NGMs can be fewer than that of broken symmetry generators, and the dispersion of NGMs is not necessarily linear. In this article, we review recently established formulas for NGMs associated with broken internal symmetries that work equally for relativistic and nonrelativistic systems. We also discuss complexities of NGMs originating from space-time symmetry breaking. In the process we cover many illuminating examples from various context. We also present a complementary point of view from the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem.
Hydrodynamic relaxation in open quantum many-body systems can be understood in terms of diffusive Nambu--Goldstone (NG) modes associated with strong-to-weak spontaneous symmetry breaking (SWSSB). Here, we find a common structure underlying weak ergodicity breaking in closed quantum systems and diffusive hydrodynamics in open quantum systems. We establish a spectral correspondence between the parent Hamiltonian of rainbow quantum many-body scar (RQMBS) states in closed systems and the effective Lindbladian of strongly dissipative open systems with strong U(1) symmetry and local charge-dephasing Lindblad operators. For broad classes of spin, fermionic, and bosonic systems, we construct asymptotic RQMBS (ARQMBS) states. Within the enlarged scar subspace, the parent Hamiltonian admits a local Rokhsar--Kivelson-type frustration-free decomposition. A single-mode variational construction gives an O(k2) upper bound on its lowest excitation energy and yields states satisfying the defining ARQMBS criteria: orthogonality, vanishing energy variance, and characteristic entanglement scaling. Under vectorization, RQMBS states are mapped to maximally mixed infinite-temperature states in fixed-charge sectors, which exhibit long-range SWSSB order under finite-density conditions. Assuming uniformly bounded positive transition rates, the effective Lindbladian has the same local projectors as the parent Hamiltonian but with positive transition-dependent weights, yielding two-sided spectral bounds and the same system-size scaling of their gaps. For uniform rates, the two operators are proportional to each other and their eigenmodes coincide. Therefore, an exact quadratic parent-Hamiltonian branch maps directly to a diffusive NG mode. Our results connect different mechanisms of slow relaxation in closed and open quantum many-body systems.
For a quantum many-body spin system undergoing spontaneous symmetry breaking with type-B Goldstone modes, a high degree of degeneracy arises in the ground state manifold. Generically, if this degeneracy is polynomial in system size, then it does not depend on the type of boundary conditions used. However, if there exists an emergent (local) symmetry operation tailored to a specific degenerate ground state, then we show that the degeneracies are exponential in system size and are different under periodic boundary conditions (PBCs) and open boundary conditions (OBCs). We further show that the exponential ground state degeneracies in turn imply the emergence of Goldstone flat bands -- single-mode excitations generated by a multi-site operator and its images under the repeated action of the translation operation under PBCs or the cyclic permutation symmetry operation under OBCs. Conversely, we also show that the presence of emergent Goldstone flat bands implies that there exists an emergent (local) symmetry operation tailored to a specific degenerate ground state. In addition, we propose an extrinsic characterization of emergent Goldstone flat bands, revealing a connection to quantum many-body scars, which violate the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. We illustrate this by presenting examples from the staggered SU(4) spin-1 ferromagnetic biquadratic model and the staggered SU(4) ferromagnetic spin-orbital model. We also perform extensive numerical simulations for the more general SO(3) spin-1 bilinear-biquadratic and SO(4) ferromagnetic spin-orbital models, containing the two aforementioned models as the endpoints in the ferromagnetic regimes respectively, and confirm the emergence of Goldstone flat bands, as we approach these endpoints from deep inside the ferromagnetic regimes.
We study quantum many-body scars (QMBS) in the language of commutant algebras, which are defined as symmetry algebras of of local Hamiltonians. This framework explains the origin of dynamically disconnected subspaces seen in models with exact QMBS, i.e., the large “thermal” subspace and the small “nonthermal” subspace, which are attributed to the existence of unconventional nonlocal conserved quantities in the commutant; hence, it unifies the study of conventional symmetries and weak ergodicity-breaking phenomena into a single framework. Furthermore, this language enables us to use the von Neumann double commutant theorem to formally write down the exhaustive algebra of Hamiltonians with a desired set of QMBS, which demonstrates that QMBS survive under large classes of local perturbations. We illustrate this using several standard examples of QMBS, including the spin- 1 / 2 ferromagnetic, AKLT, spin-1 XY π -bimagnon, and the electronic η -pairing towers of states; in each of these cases, we explicitly write down a set of generators for the full algebra of Hamiltonians with these QMBS. Understanding this hidden structure in QMBS Hamiltonians also allows us to recover results of previous “brute-force” numerical searches for such Hamiltonians. In addition, this language clearly demonstrates the equivalence of several unified formalisms for QMBS proposed in the literature and also illustrates the connection between two apparently distinct classes of QMBS Hamiltonians—those that are captured by the so-called Shiraishi-Mori construction and those that lie beyond. Finally, we show that this framework motivates a precise definition for QMBS that automatically implies that they violate the conventional eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, and we discuss its implications to dynamics. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Quantum many-body scars (QMBSs) are a novel paradigm for the violation of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis—Hamiltonians of these systems exhibit mid-spectrum eigenstates that are equidistant in energy and which possess low entanglement and evade thermalization for long times. We present a novel approach to understanding the anomalous dynamical behavior in these systems. Specifically, we postulate that QMBS Hamiltonians H can generically be partitioned into a set of terms O a which do not commute over the entire Hilbert space, but commute to all orders within the subspace of scar states. All states in the scar subspace thus evolve according to a “broken unitary” U s ( t ) = ∏ a e − i O a t , where H = ∑ a O a , which provides a simple interpretation of the anomalous dynamical features exhibited by quantum scars; they evolve in time according to a simpler unitary operator allowing for revivals. It is found that the observed dynamical decoupling is often a direct consequence of simple local conditions, which when satisfied lead to recurring aspects of QMBSs, including equidistant eigenvalues, many-body revivals, and sub-volume-law entanglement entropy. Two classes of scar models emerge in this picture—those with a finite set of O a , as pertaining of, for instance, scars in the AKLT model, and those with an extensive set of such operators, such as eta pairing scar states in the Hubbard model. Besides discussing how many well-known scar models fit into the above picture, we show how the broken unitary formalism captures many known scar construction methods, known in the literature and generalizes others such as quasiparticles matrix product state (MPS) based methods, and the Shiraishi-Mori approach. Published by the American Physical Society 2024