We investigate the phase transitions from chaotic to nonchaotic dynamics in a quantum spin chain with a local non-Hermitian disorder, which can be realized with a Rydberg atom array setting. As the disorder strength increases, the emergence of nonchaotic dynamics is qualitatively captured through the suppressed growth of Krylov complexity and quantitatively identified through the reciprocity breaking of Krylov space. We further find that the localization in Krylov space generates another transition in the weak disorder regime, suggesting a weak ergodicity breaking. Our results closely align with conventional methods, such as the entanglement entropy and complex level spacing statistics, and pave the way to explore non-Hermitian phase transitions using Krylov complexity and associated metrics.
We investigate the phase transitions from chaotic to nonchaotic dynamics in a quantum spin chain with a local non-Hermitian disorder, which can be realized with a Rydberg atom array setting. As the disorder strength increases, the emergence of nonchaotic dynamics is qualitatively captured through the suppressed growth of Krylov complexity and quantitatively identified through the reciprocity breaking of Krylov space. We further find that the localization in Krylov space generates another transition in the weak disorder regime, suggesting a weak ergodicity breaking. Our results closely align with conventional methods, such as the entanglement entropy and complex level spacing statistics, and pave the way to explore non-Hermitian phase transitions using Krylov complexity and associated metrics.
We investigate signatures of quantum chaos within Ising spin chains subjected to transverse and longitudinal fields, incorporating both local (nearest-neighbor) and non-local (long-range) couplings. While local Ising models may exhibit integrable or chaotic dynamics contingent on interaction strengths and field parameters, systems with non-local interactions generally display a stronger propensity toward chaos, even when the non-local couplings are weak. By examining the distribution of energy level spacings through the level spacing ratio, we delineate the transition from integrable to chaotic regimes and characterize the emergence of quantum chaos in these systems. Our analysis demonstrates that non-local couplings facilitate faster operator spreading and more intricate dynamical behavior, enabling these systems to approach maximal chaos more readily than their local counterparts. Additionally, we analyze Krylov complexity as a dynamical probe of chaos, observing a characteristic peak followed by a plateau at late times in chaotic regimes. This behavior provides a quantitative means to distinguish between integrable and chaotic phases, with the growth rate and saturation level of the complexity serving as effective indicators. Our findings underscore the role of non-local interactions in accelerating the onset of chaos and modifying dynamical complexity in quantum spin chains.
Unraveling the mechanisms of ergodicity breaking in complex quantum systems is a central pursuit in nonequilibrium physics. In this work, we investigate a one-dimensional spin model featuring a tunable long-range hopping term, Hn, which introduces nonlocal interactions and bridges the gap between Hermitian and non-Hermitian regimes. Through a systematic analysis of level-spacing statistics, Krylov complexity, and entanglement entropy, we demonstrate that Hn acts as a universal control parameter driving the transition from integrability to quantum chaos. Specifically, increasing the strength of Hn induces a crossover from Poissonian to Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble statistics in the Hermitian limit, and similarly triggers chaotic dynamics in the non-Hermitian case. Most remarkably, despite the onset of global chaos, we identify a tower of exact nonthermal eigenstates that evade thermalization. These states survive as robust quantum many-body scars, retaining low entanglement and coherent dynamics even under strong non-Hermitian perturbations. Our findings reveal a universal mechanism by which long-range and non-Hermitian effects reshape quantum ergodicity, offering new pathways for preserving quantum coherence in complex many-body systems.
Time New Roman 10 We investigate signatures of quantum chaos within Ising spin chains subjected to transverse and longitudinal fields, incorporating both local (nearest-neighbor) and non-local (long-range) couplings. While local Ising models may exhibit integrable or chaotic dynamics contingent on interaction strengths and field parameters, systems with non-local interactions generally display a stronger propensity toward chaos, even when the non-local couplings are weak. By examining the distribution of energy level spacings through the level spacing ratio, we delineate the transition from integrable to chaotic regimes and characterize the emergence of quantum chaos in these systems. Our analysis demonstrates that non-local couplings facilitate faster operator spreading and more intricate dynamical behavior, enabling these systems to approach maximal chaos more readily than their local counterparts. Additionally, we analyze Krylov complexity as a dynamical probe of chaos, observing a characteristic peak followed by a plateau at late times in chaotic regimes. This behavior provides a quantitative means to distinguish between integrable and chaotic phases, with the growth rate and saturation level of the complexity serving as effective indicators. Our findings underscore the role of non-local interactions in accelerating the onset of chaos and modifying dynamical complexity in quantum spin chains.
The growth of simple operators is essential for the emergence of chaotic dynamics and quantum thermalization. Recent studies have proposed different measures, including the out-of-time-order correlator and Krylov complexity. It is established that the out-of-time-order correlator serves as the signature of quantum many-body chaos, while the Krylov complexity provides its upper bound. However, there exist nonchaotic systems in which Krylov complexity grows exponentially, indicating that the Krylov complexity itself is not a witness of many-body chaos. In this Letter, we introduce the missing ingredient called the Krylov metric K_{mn}, which probes the size of the Krylov basis. We propose that the universal criteria for fast scramblers include (i) the exponential growth of Krylov complexity, (ii) the diagonal elements K_{nn}∼n^{h} with h∈(0,1], and (iii) the negligibility of off-diagonal elements K_{mn} with m≠n. We further show that h=ϰ/2α is a ratio between the quantum Lyapunov exponent ϰ and the Krylov exponent α. This proposal is supported by both generic arguments and explicit examples, including solvable Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev models, Luttinger liquids, and many-body localized systems. Our results provide a refined understanding of how chaotic dynamics emerge from the Krylov space perspective.
Probing weak chaos in N=4 super Yang-Mills and long-range spin chains
We study signatures of quantum chaos in finite-loop truncations of the planar dilatation operator in the su(2) sector of N=4 super Yang-Mills and its β-deformation. These truncations define holographically motivated long-range deformations of the nearest-neighbour XXX spin chain. At one-loop the model is integrable, while the all-loop planar theory is expected to again be integrable. Finite-loop truncations therefore provide a natural setting for investigating how chaotic behaviour emerges between these two integrable limits. We analyse this question using spectral statistics, eigenvector diagnostics and spread complexity. We find that the two- and four-loop truncations develop GOE-like level statistics at sufficiently large coupling but with features characteristic of weak integrability breaking. The integrability breaking at four-loops is weaker than at two-loops and the critical coupling at which chaos occurs is larger, at least for long spin chains. The three-loop truncation does not show the same onset of chaos in the range studied. Eigenvector diagnostics show that the corresponding eigenstates remain less random than GOE vectors, indicating weak ergodicity and multifractality. Finally, we can identify signatures of the eigenvalue and eigenvector chaos in the Krylov-space data. Namely, we demonstrate a correlation of the level spacing statistics with the peak of spread complexity and disorder on the Krylov chain. The delocalisation of the initial state in the Hamiltonian eigenbasis is shown to strongly affect the saturation of complexity. Our results suggest that finite-loop dilatation operators are not generic long-range spin chain Hamiltonians, but already display patterns consistent with the restoration of integrability in the all-loop planar theory.
Strong local disorder in interacting quantum spin chains can turn delocalized eigenmodes into localized eigenstates, giving rise to many-body localized phases. This is accompanied by distinct spectral statistics: chaotic for the delocalized phase and integrable for the localized phase. In isolated systems, localization and chaos are defined through a web of relations among eigenvalues, eigenvectors, and real-time dynamics. These may change as the system is made open. We ask whether random dissipation (without random disorder) can induce chaotic or localized behavior in an otherwise integrable system. The dissipation is described using non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, which can effectively be obtained from Markovian dynamics conditioned on null measurement. In this non-Hermitian setting, we argue in favor of the use of the singular value decomposition. We complement the singular value statistics with different diagnostic tools, namely, the singular form factor and the inverse participation ratio and entanglement entropy of singular vectors. We thus identify a crossover of the singular values from chaotic to integrable spectral features and of the singular vectors from delocalization to localization. Our method is illustrated in an XXZ Hamiltonian with random local dissipation.