We propose a method based on the discrete truncated Wigner approximation (DTWA) for computing out-of-time-order correlators. This method is applied to long-range interacting quantum spin systems where the interactions decay as a power law with distance. As a demonstration, we use a squared commutator of local operators and its higher-order extensions that describe quantum information scrambling under Hamilton dynamics. Our results reveal that the DTWA method accurately reproduces the exact dynamics of the average spreading of quantum information (i.e., the squared commutator) across all time regimes in strongly long-range interacting systems. We also identify limitations in the DTWA method when capturing dynamics in weakly long-range interacting systems and the fastest spreading of quantum information. Then we apply the DTWA method to investigate the system-size dependence of the scrambling time in strongly long-range interacting systems. We reveal that the scaling behavior of the scrambling time for large system sizes qualitatively changes depending on the interaction range. This work provides and demonstrates a new technique to study scrambling dynamics in long-range interacting quantum spin systems.
We propose a method based on the discrete truncated Wigner approximation (DTWA) for computing out-of-time-order correlators. This method is applied to long-range interacting quantum spin systems where the interactions decay as a power law with distance. As a demonstration, we use a squared commutator of local operators and its higher-order extensions that describe quantum information scrambling under Hamilton dynamics. Our results reveal that the DTWA method accurately reproduces the exact dynamics of the average spreading of quantum information (i.e., the squared commutator) across all time regimes in strongly long-range interacting systems. We also identify limitations in the DTWA method when capturing dynamics in weakly long-range interacting systems and the fastest spreading of quantum information. Then we apply the DTWA method to investigate the system-size dependence of the scrambling time in strongly long-range interacting systems. We reveal that the scaling behavior of the scrambling time for large system sizes qualitatively changes depending on the interaction range. This work provides and demonstrates a new technique to study scrambling dynamics in long-range interacting quantum spin systems.
A phase-space method, suitable to study the many-body spin dynamics in generic spin lattice models is introduced, discussed, and tested. This technique, which we refer to as the dTWA, is based on the discrete sampling of the Wigner function instead of the continuous sampling in traditional Truncated Wigner Approximation (TWA) methods. The power of the method is demonstrated by comparisons with analytical and numerically exact calculations, which show a significant improvement compared to the TWA, e.g. by capturing revivals of spin-observables. The dTWA is demonstrated to not only correctly reproduce dynamics of one-particle observables but also two-point correlations and spin squeezing, a property relying on entanglement. This method thus opens the possibility to study the quantum dynamics in long-range spin models, accessible to recent state-of-the-art experiments, in regimes where other numerical techniques are inapplicable.
Interacting quantum spin models are remarkably useful for describing different types of physical, chemical, and biological systems.Significant understanding of their equilibrium properties has been achieved to date, especially for the case of spin models with short-range couplings.However, progress toward the development of a comparable understanding in long-range interacting models, in particular out-of-equilibrium, remains limited.In a recent work, we proposed a semiclassical numerical method to study spin models, the discrete truncated Wigner approximation (DTWA), and demonstrated its capability to correctly capture the dynamics of one-and two-point correlations in one-dimensional (1D) systems.Here we go one step forward and use the DTWA method to study the dynamics of correlations in two-dimensional (2D) systems with many spins and different types of long-range couplings, in regimes where other numerical methods are generally unreliable.We compute spatial and time-dependent correlations for spin-couplings that decay with distance as a power-law and determine the velocity at which correlations propagate through the system.Sharp changes in the behavior of those velocities are found as a function of the power-law decay exponent.Our predictions are relevant for a broad range of systems including solid state materials, atom-photon systems and ultracold gases of polar molecules, trapped ions, Rydberg, and magnetic atoms.We validate the DTWA predictions for small 2D systems and 1D systems, but ultimately, in the spirt of quantum simulation, experiments will be needed to confirm our predictions for large 2D systems.
Abstract Numerical techniques to efficiently model out-of-equilibrium dynamics in interacting quantum many-body systems are key for advancing our capability to harness and understand complex quantum matter. Here we propose a new numerical approach which we refer to as generalized discrete truncated Wigner approximation (GDTWA). It is based on a discrete semi-classical phase space sampling and allows to investigate quantum dynamics in lattice spin systems with arbitrary S ≥ 1/2. We show that the GDTWA can accurately simulate dynamics of large ensembles in arbitrary dimensions. We apply it for S > 1/2 spin-models with dipolar long-range interactions, a scenario arising in recent experiments with magnetic atoms. We show that the method can capture beyond mean-field effects, not only at short times, but it also can correctly reproduce long time quantum-thermalization dynamics. We benchmark the method with exact diagonalization in small systems, with perturbation theory for short times, and with analytical predictions made for models which feature quantum-thermalization at long times. We apply our method to study dynamics in large S > 1/2 spin-models and compute experimentally accessible observables such as Zeeman level populations, contrast of spin coherence, spin squeezing, and entanglement quantified by single-spin Renyi entropies. We reveal that large S systems can feature larger entanglement than corresponding S = 1/2 systems. Our analyses demonstrate that the GDTWA can be a powerful tool for modeling complex spin dynamics in regimes where other state-of-the art numerical methods fail.
The discrete truncated Wigner approximation (DTWA) is a semiclassical phase-space method useful for the exploration of many-body quantum dynamics. In this work we investigate many-body localization (MBL) and thermalization using DTWA and compare its performance to exact numerical solutions. By taking as a benchmark case a one-dimensional random field Heisenberg spin chain with short-range interactions, and by comparing to numerically exact techniques, we show that DTWA is able to reproduce dynamical signatures that characterize both the thermal and the MBL phases. It exhibits the best quantitative agreement at short times deep in each of the phases and larger mismatches close to the phase transition. The DTWA captures the logarithmic growth of entanglement in the MBL phase, even though a pure classical mean-field analysis would lead to no dynamics at all. Our results suggest the DTWA can become a useful method to investigate MBL and thermalization in experimentally relevant settings intractable with exact numerical techniques, such as systems with long-range interactions and/or systems in higher dimensions.
In this study, we investigate out-of-time-order correlators (OTOCs) in systems with power-law decaying interactions such as ${R}^{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}}$, where R is the distance. In such systems, the fast scrambling of quantum information or the exponential growth of information propagation can potentially occur according to the decay rate $\ensuremath{\alpha}$. In this regard, a crucial open challenge is to identify the optimal condition for $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ such that fast scrambling cannot occur. In this study, we disprove fast scrambling in generic long-range interacting systems with $\ensuremath{\alpha}>D$ (D: spatial dimension), where the total energy is extensive in terms of system size and the thermodynamic limit is well defined. We rigorously demonstrate that the OTOC shows a polynomial growth over time as long as $\ensuremath{\alpha}>D$ and the necessary scrambling time over a distance R is larger than $t\ensuremath{\gtrsim}{R}^{[(2\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{-}2D)/(2\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{-}D+1)]}$.
Despite the fact that power-law interactions occur in a plethora of physical systems, their many-body dynamics is far less understood than that of nearest-neighbor interacting systems. Here, we study information scrambling in strongly disordered spin systems with power-law interactions via out-of-time-order correlators (OTOCs). Numerically, we find pronounced differences in the dynamical spreading of OTOCs between nearest-neighbor and power-law interacting systems. This deviation persists even for short-range interactions, opposing the common view that these interactions produce dynamics equivalent to the nearest-neighbor case. In a detailed experimental proposal, tailored but not limited to Rydberg tweezer setups, we present a protocol to extract OTOCs in XXZ Heisenberg spin systems with tunable anisotropy and programmable disorder based on currently available techniques.