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arXiv:2503.15640 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Crosscap states with tunable entanglement as exact eigenstates of local spin chain Hamiltonians

Márton Mestyán, Balázs Pozsgay

Published Jun 10, 2025• 3 citations
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Abstract

Abstract It has been observed recently that various spin chain Hamiltonians admit special zero energy ‘crosscap’ eigenstates. These states are made up of maximally entangled Bell pairs prepared on antipodal sites of a periodic chain. We generalize the states by allowing the antipodal pairs to have non-maximal, tunable entanglement. We give sufficient conditions for such states to be exact zero energy eigenstates of a local Hamiltonian. The conditions are naturally satisfied in many models which have a global U (1) symmetry. These models include well known integrable models such as the XX model, the Bariev model, the folded XXZ model, and also a variety of non-integrable models. Using the zero-energy crosscap states we also derive a family of exact zero modes with sub-volume law entanglement.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8121/ade380

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Abstract It has been observed recently that various spin chain Hamiltonians admit special zero energy ‘crosscap’ eigenstates. These states are made up of maximally entangled Bell pairs prepared on antipodal sites of a periodic chain. We generalize the states by allowing the antipodal pairs to have non-maximal, tunable entanglement. We give sufficient conditions for such states to be exact zero energy eigenstates of a local Hamiltonian. The conditions are naturally satisfied in many models which have a global U (1) symmetry. These models include well known integrable models such as the XX model, the Bariev model, the folded XXZ model, and also a variety of non-integrable models. Using the zero-energy crosscap states we also derive a family of exact zero modes with sub-volume law entanglement.
Exact solutions for excited states in nonintegrable quantum Hamiltonians have revealed novel dynamical phenomena that can occur in quantum many-body systems. This work proposes a method to analytically construct a specific set of volume-law entangled zero-energy exact excited eigenstates in a large class of spin Hamiltonians. In particular, we show that all spin chains that satisfy a simple set of conditions host exact volume law entangled zero-energy eigenstates in the middle of their spectra. Examples of physically relevant spin chains of this type include the transverse-field Ising model, PXP model, spin-S XY model, and spin-S Kitaev chain. Although these eigenstates are highly atypical in their structure, they are thermal with respect to local observables. Our framework also unifies many recent constructions of volume-law entangled eigenstates in the literature. Finally, we show that a similar construction also generalizes to spin models on graphs in arbitrary dimensions.
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Abstract We study crosscap states in integrable field theories and spin chains in 1+11+11+1 1 + 1 dimensions. We derive an exact formula for overlaps between the crosscap state and any excited state in integrable field theories with diagonal scattering. We then compute the crosscap entropy, i.e. the overlap for the ground state, in some examples. In the examples we analyzed, the result turns out to decrease monotonically along the renormalization group flow except in cases where the discrete symmetry is spontaneously broken in the infrared. We next introduce crosscap states in integrable spin chains, and obtain determinant expressions for the overlaps with energy eigenstates. These states are long-range entangled and their entanglement entropy grows linearly until the size of the subregion reaches half the system size. This property is reminiscent of pure-state black holes in holography and makes them interesting for use as initial conditions of quantum quench. As side results, we propose a generalization of Zamolodchikov’s staircase model to flows between D-series minimal models, and discuss the relation to fermionic minimal models and the GSO projection.
We consider integrable boundary states in the XXX spin-1/2 spin chain. We begin by briefly reviewing the algebraic Bethe Ansatz as well as integrable boundary states in spin chains. Then a recently discovered class of integrable states known as crosscap states is described and expanded. In these states each spin is entangled with its antipodal spin. We present a novel proof of the integrability of both a crosscap state that is known in the literature and one that has not previously been studied. We then use the machinery of the algebraic Bethe Ansatz to derive the overlaps between the crosscap states and off-shell Bethe states.
We derive exact strong zero mode (ESZM) operators for integrable spin-S chains with open boundary conditions and a boundary field. Their locality properties are generally weaker than in the previously known cases, but they still imply infinite coherence times in the vicinity of the edges. We explain how such integrable chains possess multiple ground states describing a first-order quantum phase transition, and that the odd number of such states for integer S makes the weaker locality properties necessary. We make contact with more traditional approaches by showing how the ESZM for S=1/2 acts on energy eigenstates given by solutions of the Bethe equations.
The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) plays a major role in explaining thermalization of isolated quantum many-body systems. However, there has been no proof of the ETH in realistic systems due to the difficulty in the theoretical treatment of thermal energy eigenstates of nonintegrable systems. Here, we write down analytically thermal eigenstates of nonintegrable spin chains. We consider a class of theoretically tractable volume-law states, which we call entangled antipodal pair (EAP) states. These states are thermal, in the most fundamental sense that they are indistinguishable from the Gibbs state with respect to all local observables, with infinite temperature. We then identify Hamiltonians having the EAP state as an eigenstate and rigorously show that some of these Hamiltonians are nonintegrable. Furthermore, a thermal pure state at an arbitrary temperature is obtained by the imaginary time evolution of an EAP state. Our results offer a potential avenue for providing a provable example of the ETH.