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arXiv:2508.13883

Properties of the temporal transfer matrix in integrable Floquet circuits

Ilya Vilkoviskiy, Kirill Matirko

Published Aug 19, 2025• 0 citations
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Abstract

One possible approach to studying non-equilibrium dynamics is the so-called influence matrix (IM) formalism. The influence matrix can be viewed as a quantum state that encodes complete information about the non-equilibrium dynamics of a boundary degree of freedom. It has been shown that the IM is the unique stationary point of the temporal transfer matrix. This transfer matrix, however, is non-diagonalizable and exhibits a non-trivial Jordan block structure. In this article, we demonstrate that, in the case of an integrable XXZ spin chain, the temporal transfer matrix itself is integrable and can be embedded into a family of commuting operators. We further {conjecture} the exact expression for the IM as a particular limit of a Bethe wavefunction, with the corresponding Bethe roots given explicitly. We also focus on the special case of the free-fermionic XX chain. In this setting, we uncover additional local integrals of motion, which enable us to analyze the dimensions and structure of the Jordan blocks, as well as the locality properties of the IM. Moreover, we construct a basis of quasi-local creation operators that generate the IM from the vacuum state.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2508.13883

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One possible approach to studying non-equilibrium dynamics is the so-called influence matrix (IM) formalism. The influence matrix can be viewed as a quantum state that encodes complete information about the non-equilibrium dynamics of a boundary degree of freedom. It has been shown that the IM is the unique stationary point of the temporal transfer matrix. This transfer matrix, however, is non-diagonalizable and exhibits a non-trivial Jordan block structure. In this article, we demonstrate that, in the case of an integrable XXZ spin chain, the temporal transfer matrix itself is integrable and can be embedded into a family of commuting operators. We further {conjecture} the exact expression for the IM as a particular limit of a Bethe wavefunction, with the corresponding Bethe roots given explicitly. We also focus on the special case of the free-fermionic XX chain. In this setting, we uncover additional local integrals of motion, which enable us to analyze the dimensions and structure of the Jordan blocks, as well as the locality properties of the IM. Moreover, we construct a basis of quasi-local creation operators that generate the IM from the vacuum state.
We consider a unitary circuit where the underlying gates are chosen to be \check{R} R ̌ -matrices satisfying the Yang-Baxter equation and correlation functions can be expressed through a transfer matrix formalism. These transfer matrices are no longer Hermitian and differ from the ones guaranteeing local conservation laws, but remain mutually commuting at different values of the spectral parameter defining the circuit. Exact eigenstates can still be constructed as a Bethe ansatz, but while these transfer matrices are diagonalizable in the inhomogeneous case, the homogeneous limit corresponds to an exceptional point where multiple eigenstates coalesce and Jordan blocks appear. Remarkably, the complete set of (generalized) eigenstates is only obtained when taking into account a combinatorial number of nontrivial vacuum states. In all cases, the Bethe equations reduce to those of the integrable spin-1 chain and exhibit a global SU(2) symmetry, significantly reducing the total number of eigenstates required in the calculation of correlation functions. A similar construction is shown to hold for the calculation of out-of-time-order correlations.
Describing dynamics of quantum many-body systems is a formidable challenge due to rapid generation of quantum entanglement between remote degrees of freedom. A promising approach to tackle this challenge, which has been proposed recently, is to characterize the quantum dynamics of a many-body system and its properties as a bath via the Feynman-Vernon influence matrix (IM), which is an operator in the space of time trajectories of local degrees of freedom. Physical understanding of the general scaling of the IM's temporal entanglement and its relation to basic dynamical properties is highly incomplete to the present day. In this paper, we analytically compute the exact IM for a family of integrable Floquet models---the transverse-field kicked Ising chain---finding a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer-like ``wave function'' on the Schwinger-Keldysh contour with algebraically decaying correlations. We demonstrate that the IM exhibits area-law temporal entanglement scaling for all parameter values. Furthermore, the entanglement pattern of the IM reveals the system's phase diagram, exhibiting jumps across transitions between distinct Floquet phases. Near criticality, a nontrivial scaling behavior of temporal entanglement is found. The area-law temporal entanglement allows us to efficiently describe the effects of sizable integrability-breaking perturbations for long evolution times by using matrix-product-state methods. This work shows that tensor-network methods are efficient in describing the effect of noninteracting baths on open quantum systems and provides an approach to studying quantum many-body systems with weakly broken integrability.
In this paper, we address the problem of Yang-Baxter integrability of doubled quantum circuit of qubits (spins 1/2) with open boundary conditions where the two circuit replicas are only coupled at the left or right boundary. We investigate the cases where the bulk is given by elementary six vertex unitary gates of either the free fermionic XX type or interacting XXZ type. By using the Sklyanin’s construction of reflection algebra, we obtain the most general solutions of the boundary Yang-Baxter equation for such a setup. We use this solution to build, from the transfer matrix formalism, integrable circuits with two step discrete time Floquet (aka brickwork) dynamics. We prove that, only if the bulk is a free-model, the boundary matrices are in general non-factorizable, and for particular choice of free parameters yield non-trivial unitary dynamics with boundary interaction between the two chains. Then, we consider the limit of continuous time evolution and we give the interpretation of a restricted set of the boundary terms in the Lindbladian setting. Specifically, for a particular choice of free parameters, the solutions correspond to an open quantum system dynamics with the source terms representing injecting or removing particles from the boundary of the spin chain.
A new type of quantum transfer matrix, arising as a Cholesky factor for the steady-state density matrix of a dissipative Markovian process associated with the boundary-driven Lindblad equation for the isotropic spin-1/2 Heisenberg ( XXX ) chain, is presented. The transfer matrix forms a commuting family of non-Hermitian operators depending on the spectral parameter, which is essentially the strength of dissipative coupling at the boundaries. The intertwining of the corresponding Lax and monodromy matrices is performed by an infinitely dimensional Yang–Baxter R -matrix, which we construct explicitly and is essentially different from the standard 4 × 4 XXX R -matrix. We also discuss a possibility to construct Bethe ansatz for the spectrum and eigenstates of the non-equilibrium steady-state density operator. Furthermore, we indicate the existence of a deformed R -matrix in the infinite dimensional auxiliary space for the anisotropic XXZ spin-1/2 chain, which in general provides a sequence of new, possibly quasi-local, conserved quantities of the bulk XXZ dynamics.
A new type of quantum transfer matrix, arising as a Cholesky factor for the steady-state density matrix of a dissipative Markovian process associated with the boundary-driven Lindblad equation for the isotropic spin-1/2 Heisenberg (XXX) chain, is presented. The transfer matrix forms a commuting family of non-Hermitian operators depending on the spectral parameter, which is essentially the strength of dissipative coupling at the boundaries. The intertwining of the corresponding Lax and monodromy matrices is performed by an infinitely dimensional Yang–Baxter R-matrix, which we construct explicitly and is essentially different from the standard 4 × 4 XXX R-matrix. We also discuss a possibility to construct Bethe ansatz for the spectrum and eigenstates of the non-equilibrium steady-state density operator. Furthermore, we indicate the existence of a deformed R-matrix in the infinite dimensional auxiliary space for the anisotropic XXZ spin-1/2 chain, which in general provides a sequence of new, possibly quasi-local, conserved quantities of the bulk XXZ dynamics.
Studies of integrable systems have profoundly deepened the fundamental understanding of quantum many-body physics. While equilibrium properties such as ground states and thermodynamics can often be characterized efficiently, accurately characterizing nonequilibrium integrable dynamics remains a significant challenge. Here, we develop an influence matrix bootstrap approach for exactly solving nonequilibrium dynamics. This approach begins with an ansatz consisting of a set of local tensor relations, termed generalized zipper conditions, and uses finite-time data to construct exact solutions of local dynamics that extend to arbitrarily long times. We demonstrate this approach in the "Rule 201" quantum cellular automaton, an integrable Trotterization of the PXP Hamiltonian. This uncovers a rich landscape of nonequilibrium behavior exhibiting initial-state dependence. As an example, we investigate the fate of persistent oscillating dynamics under local non-integrable perturbations, and present analytical results for non-thermal relaxation constrained by conservation laws. We also obtain numerically exact results for entanglement growth across a broad class of initial states. Furthermore, from an information-theoretic perspective, we identify a refined structure of multitime correlations termed the hidden Markov orde}: the memory encoded in the dynamics separates into finite-length and long-range distributed components, which becomes transparent in an exact split-index matrix-product-state representation of the influence matrix. Our approach enables unified investigations of nonthermalizing and thermalizing regimes of nonequilibrium dynamics within a single analytically tractable model, and can be tested experimentally in state-of-the-art quantum simulators such as Rydberg atom arrays.