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arXiv:2406.03524

Spread complexity and localization in $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric systems

Aranya Bhattacharya, Rathindra Nath Das, Bidyut Dey, Johanna Erdmenger B

Published Jun 5, 2024• 0 citations
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Abstract

We present a framework for investigating wave function spreading in $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric quantum systems using spread complexity and spread entropy. We consider a tight-binding chain with complex on-site potentials at the boundary sites. In the $\mathcal{PT}$-unbroken phase, the wave function is delocalized. We find that in the $\mathcal{PT}$-broken phase, it becomes localized on one edge of the tight-binding lattice. This localization is a realization of the non-Hermitian skin effect. Localization in the $\mathcal{PT}$-broken phase is observed both in the lattice chain basis and the Krylov basis. Spread entropy, entropic complexity, and a further measure that we term the Krylov inverse participation ratio probe the dynamics of wave function spreading and quantify the strength of localization probed in the Krylov basis. The number of Krylov basis vectors required to store the information of the state reduces with the strength of localization. Our results demonstrate how measures in Krylov space can be used to characterize the non-hermitian skin effect and its localization phase transition.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2406.03524

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Spread complexity and localization in PT\mathcal{PT}PT-symmetric systems
We present a framework for investigating wave function spreading in PT\mathcal{PT}PT-symmetric quantum systems using spread complexity and spread entropy. We consider a tight-binding chain with complex on-site potentials at the boundary sites. In the PT\mathcal{PT}PT-unbroken phase, the wave function is delocalized. We find that in the PT\mathcal{PT}PT-broken phase, it becomes localized on one edge of the tight-binding lattice. This localization is a realization of the non-Hermitian skin effect. Localization in the PT\mathcal{PT}PT-broken phase is observed both in the lattice chain basis and the Krylov basis. Spread entropy, entropic complexity, and a further measure that we term the Krylov inverse participation ratio probe the dynamics of wave function spreading and quantify the strength of localization probed in the Krylov basis. The number of Krylov basis vectors required to store the information of the state reduces with the strength of localization. Our results demonstrate how measures in Krylov space can be used to characterize the non-hermitian skin effect and its localization phase transition.
A recently developed notion, known as spread complexity, captures how a quantum state spreads in Krylov space under unitary evolution. Related Krylov-space approaches are increasingly being investigated for applications in quantum control, simulation, and metrology, as well as are being considered for implementation in near-term quantum platforms. However, its connection to fundamental quantum resources such as entanglement and quantum coherence remains unclear. We show that the dynamics of entanglement is constrained by the extent of spreading in Krylov space. For multipartite systems, we relate state delocalization in the Krylov basis, quantified by the inverse participation ratio, to geometric measures of multipartite quantum correlations. Furthermore, we derive analytical relations between the quantum coherence of the initial state in the energy eigenbasis and spread complexity for qubit and qutrit systems. Our results make progress towards understanding the subtle interplay between the dynamical spreading in Krylov space and fundamental quantum resources.
A bstract Using spread complexity and spread entropy, we study non-unitary quantum dynamics. For non-hermitian Hamiltonians, we extend the bi-Lanczos construction for the Krylov basis to the Schrödinger picture. Moreover, we implement an algorithm adapted to complex symmetric Hamiltonians. This reduces the computational memory requirements by half compared to the bi-Lanczos construction. We apply this construction to the one-dimensional tight-binding Hamiltonian subject to repeated measurements at fixed small time intervals, resulting in effective non-unitary dynamics. We find that the spread complexity initially grows with time, followed by an extended decay period and saturation. The choice of initial state determines the saturation value of complexity and entropy. In analogy to measurement-induced phase transitions, we consider a quench between hermitian and non-hermitian Hamiltonian evolution induced by turning on regular measurements at different frequencies. We find that as a function of the measurement frequency, the time at which the spread complexity starts growing increases. This time asymptotes to infinity when the time gap between measurements is taken to zero, indicating the onset of the quantum Zeno effect, according to which measurements impede time evolution.
Krylov complexity is a measure of operator complexity that exhibits universal behavior and bounds a large class of other measures. In this paper, we generalize Krylov complexity from a closed system to an open system coupled to a Markovian bath, where Lindbladian evolution replaces Hamiltonian evolution. We show that Krylov complexity in open systems can be mapped to a non-Hermitian tight-binding model in a half-infinite chain. We discuss the properties of the non-Hermitian terms and show that the strengths of the non-Hermitian terms increase linearly with the increase of the Krylov basis index nnn. Such a non-Hermitian tight-binding model can exhibit localized edge modes that determine the long-time behavior of Krylov complexity. Hence, the growth of Krylov complexity is suppressed by dissipation, and at long times, Krylov complexity saturates at a finite value much smaller than that of a closed system with the same Hamiltonian. Our conclusions are supported by numerical results on several models, such as the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model and the interacting fermion model. Our work provides insights for discussing complexity, chaos, and holography for open quantum systems.
We characterize the Many-Body Localization (MBL) phase transition using the dynamics of spread complexity and inverse participation ratio in the Krylov space starting from different initial states. Our analysis of the disordered Heisenberg spin-1/2 chain unravels that the ergodic-to-MBL transition can be determined from the transition of the pre-saturation peak in the thermofield double state (TFD) spread complexity. On the other hand, if an initially ordered state or a superposition of a small number of such states is chosen, then the saturation value of spread complexity and Krylov inverse participation ratio (KIPR) can distinguish the ergodic phase from the integrable phases, with no sharp difference between the integrable phases. Interestingly, the distinction between the disorder-free integrable and the MBL integrable phase is established by the spread complexity study of random states chosen from unitary and orthogonal Haar ensembles. We also study the complexity dynamics by coupling the system to a bath, which shows distinctive profiles in different phases. A stretched exponential decay of KIPR is observed when the MBL system is connected to the bath, with the decay starting at an earlier time for a greater value of environmental dephasing. Our work sheds light on the efficacy of Krylov space dynamics in understanding phase transitions in quantum many-body systems.
Phase transitions in one-dimensional lattice systems are well established and have been extensively studied within both Hermitian and non-Hermitian frameworks. In this work, we extend this understanding to a more general setting by investigating localization and delocalization transitions and the behavior of the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) using a tight-binding model on a generalized random graph lattice. Our model incorporates three key parameters, asymmetric hopping ΔΔΔ, on-site disorder WWW, and a random long-range coupling ppp that together define the underlying random graph structure. By varying ppp, ΔΔΔ, and the disorder strength, we explore the interplay between topology, randomness, and non-Hermiticity in determining localization properties. Our results show a strong competition between skin effect driven and Anderson driven localizations across parameter regimes. Notably, even in the presence of strong disorder, skin effect driven localization coexists with Anderson-driven localization. We further discuss the relevance of these results to machine-learning architectures and information propagation in complex networks and other real-world problems.
Krylov complexity has recently gained attention where the growth of operator complexity in time is measured in terms of the off-diagonal operator Lanczos coefficients. The operator Lanczos algorithm reduces the problem of complexity growth to a single-particle semi-infinite tight-binding chain (known as the Krylov chain). Employing the phenomenon of Anderson localization, we propose the phenomenology of inverse localization length on the Krylov chain that undergoes delocalization/localization transition on the Krylov chain while the physical system undergoes ergodicity breaking. On the Krylov chain we find delocalization in an ergodic regime, as we show for the SYK model, and localization in case of a weakly ergodicity-broken regime. Considering the dynamics beyond scrambling, we find a collapse across different operators in the ergodic regime. We test for two settings: (1) the coupled SYK model, and (2) the quantum East model. Our findings open avenues for mapping ergodicity/weak ergodicity-breaking transitions to delocalization/localization phenomenology on the Krylov chain.