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arXiv:2501.03076

The Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis in a Quantum Point Contact Geometry

Gregory Levine, Barry Friedman

Published Jan 6, 2025• 0 citations
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Abstract

It is known that the long-range quantum entanglement exhibited in free fermion systems is sufficient to "thermalize" a small subsystem in that the subsystem reduced density matrix computed from a typical excited eigenstate of the combined system is approximately thermal. Remarkably, fermions without any interactions are thus thought to satisfy the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH). We explore this hypothesis when the fermion subsystem is only minimally coupled to a quantum reservoir (in the form of another fermion system) through a quantum point contact (QPC). The entanglement entropy of two 2-d free fermion systems connected by one or more quantum point contacts (QPC) is examined at finite energy and in the ground state. When the combined system is in a typical excited state, it is shown that the entanglement entropy of a subsystem connected by a small number of QPCs is sub-extensive, scaling as the linear size of the subsystem ($L_A$). For sufficiently low energies ($E$) and small subsystems, it is demonstrated numerically that the entanglement entropy $S_A \sim L_A E$, what one would expect for the thermodynamics of a one-dimensional system. In this limit, we suggest that the entropy carried by each additional QPC is quantized using the one-dimensional finite size/temperature conformal scaling: $ΔS_A = α\log{(1/E)\sinh{(L_AE)}}$. The sub-extensive entropy in the case of a small number of QPCs should be contrasted with the expectation for both classical, ergodic systems and quantum chaotic systems wherein a restricted geometry might affect the equilibrium relaxation times, but not the equilibrium properties themselves, such as extensive entropy and heat capacity.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2501.03076

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It is known that the long-range quantum entanglement exhibited in free fermion systems is sufficient to "thermalize" a small subsystem in that the subsystem reduced density matrix computed from a typical excited eigenstate of the combined system is approximately thermal. Remarkably, fermions without any interactions are thus thought to satisfy the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. We explore this hypothesis when the fermion subsystem is only minimally coupled to a quantum reservoir (in the form of another fermion system) through a quantum point contact (QPC). The entanglement entropy of two free fermion systems connected by one or more QPCs is examined at finite energy and in the ground state. When the combined system is in a typical excited state, it is shown that the entanglement entropy of a subsystem connected by a small number of QPCs is subextensive, scaling as the linear size of the subsystem (L_{A}). For sufficiently low energies (E) and small subsystems, it is demonstrated numerically that the entanglement entropy S_{A}∼L_{A}E, what one would expect for the thermodynamics of a one-dimensional system. In this limit, we suggest that the entropy carried by each additional QPC is quantized using the one-dimensional finite size and temperature conformal scaling: ΔS_{A}=αlog(1/E)sinh(L_{A}E). The subextensive entropy in the case of a small number of QPCs should be contrasted with the expectation for both classical, ergodic systems and quantum chaotic systems, wherein a restricted geometry might affect the equilibrium relaxation times but not the equilibrium properties themselves, such as extensive entropy and heat capacity.
We demonstrate that the entanglement entropy area law for free fermion ground states and the corresponding volume law for highly excited states are related by a position-momentum duality, and thus are of the same origin. For a typical excited state in the thermodynamic limit, we further show that the reduced density matrix of a subsystem approaches the thermal density matrix, provided the subsystem's linear size is small compared to that of the whole system in all directions, a property we dub eigenstate typicality. This provides an explicit example of thermalization via entanglement, and reveals how statistical physics emerges from a single eigenstate by tracing out a large number of degrees of freedom.
Motivated by the qualitative picture of canonical typicality, we propose a refined formulation of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) for chaotic quantum systems. This formulation, which we refer to as subsystem ETH, is in terms of the reduced density matrix of subsystems. This strong form of ETH outlines the set of observables defined within the subsystem for which it guarantees eigenstate thermalization. We discuss the limits when the size of the subsystem is small or comparable to its complement. In the latter case we outline the way to calculate the leading volume-proportional contribution to the von Neumann and Renyi entanglment entropies. Finally, we provide numerical evidence for the proposal in the case of a one-dimensional Ising spin chain.
A bstract The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) is the leading conjecture for the emergence of statistical mechanics in generic isolated quantum systems and is formulated in terms of the matrix elements of operators. An analog known as the ergodic bipartition (EB) describes entanglement and locality and is formulated in terms of the components of eigenstates. In this paper, we significantly generalize the EB and unify it with the ETH, extending the EB to study higher correlations and systems out of equilibrium. Our main result is a diagrammatic formalism that computes arbitrary correlations between eigenstates and operators based on a recently uncovered connection between the ETH and free probability theory. We refer to the connected components of our diagrams as generalized free cumulants. We apply our formalism in several ways. First, we focus on chaotic eigenstates and establish the so-called subsystem ETH and the Page curve as consequences of our construction. We also improve known calculations for thermal reduced density matrices and comment on an inherently free probabilistic aspect of the replica approach to entanglement entropy previously noticed in a calculation for the Page curve of an evaporating black hole. Next, we turn to chaotic quantum dynamics and demonstrate the ETH as a sufficient mechanism for thermalization, in general. In particular, we show that reduced density matrices relax to their equilibrium form and that systems obey the Page curve at late times. We also demonstrate that the different phases of entanglement growth are encoded in higher correlations of the EB. Lastly, we examine the chaotic structure of eigenstates and operators together and reveal previously overlooked correlations between them. Crucially, these correlations encode butterfly velocities, a well-known dynamical property of interacting quantum systems.
We investigate the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) in integrable models, focusing on the $\text{spin}\ensuremath{-}\frac{1}{2}$ isotropic Heisenberg (XXX)(XXX)(XXX) chain. We provide numerical evidence that the ETH holds for typical eigenstates (weak ETH scenario). Specifically, using a numerical implementation of state-of-the-art Bethe ansatz results, we study the finite-size scaling of the eigenstate-to-eigenstate fluctuations of the reduced density matrix. We find that fluctuations are normally distributed, and their standard deviation decays in the thermodynamic limit as ${L}^{\ensuremath{-}1/2}$, with LLL the size of the chain. This is in contrast with the exponential decay that is found in generic nonintegrable systems. Based on our results, it is natural to expect that this scenario holds in other integrable spin models and for typical local observables. Finally, we investigate the entanglement properties of the excited states of the XXXXXXXXX chain. We numerically verify that typical midspectrum eigenstates exhibit extensive entanglement entropy (i.e., volume-law scaling).
We study subsystem entropies in 2d CFTs for subsystems constituting a finite fraction of the full system. We focus on the extensive contribution, which scales linearly with the subsystem size in the thermodynamic limit. We employ the so-called diagonal approximation to evaluate subsystem entropy for chaotic CFTs in the thermal state (canonical ensemble), the microcanonical ensemble, and in a primary state, matching previously known results. We then proceed to find analytic expressions for the subsystem entropy at leading order in c , when the global CFT state is the KdV-generalized Gibbs ensemble or the KdV-microcanonical ensemble. Previous studies of primary eigenstates have shown that, akin to the fixed-area states in AdS/CFT, the corresponding subsystem entanglement spectrum is flat. This behavior is seemingly in sharp contradiction with that of the thermal (microcanonical) state, and thus in apparent contradiction with the subsystem eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH). In this paper, we resolve this issue by comparing the primary state with the KdV-(micro)canonical ensemble. We show that the results are consistent with the KdV-generalized version of the subsystem ETH, in which local properties of quantum eigenstates are governed by their values of conserved KdV charges. Our paper solidifies evidence for the KdV-generalized ETH in 2d CFTs and emphasizes Rényi entropy as a sensitive probe of the reduced-density matrix.