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arXiv:2512.01304

Higher-order spectral form factors of circular unitary ensemble

Sohail, Youyi Huang, Lu Wei

math-phquant-phSubmitted Dec 1, 2025• Announced Dec 2, 2025
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Abstract

Spectral form factor (SFF), one of the key quantity from random matrix theory, serves as an important tool to probe universality in disordered quantum systems and quantum chaos. In this work, we present exact closed-form expressions for the second- and third-order SFFs in the circular unitary ensemble (CUE), valid for all real values of the time parameter, and analyze their asymptotic behavior in different regimes. In particular, for the second-order SFF, we derive an exact closed-form expression in terms of polygamma functions. In the limit of infinite matrix size, and when the time parameter is restricted to integer values, the second-order SFF reproduces the standard result established in earlier studies. When the time parameter is of order one relative to the matrix size, we demonstrate that the second-order SFF grows logarithmically with the ensemble dimension. For the third-order SFFs, a closed-form result in a special case is obtained by exploiting the translational invariance of CUE.

Comments
20 pages, 2 figures

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Spectral form factor (SFF), one of the key quantity from random matrix theory, serves as an important tool to probe universality in disordered quantum systems and quantum chaos. In this work, we present exact closed-form expressions for the second- and third-order SFFs in the circular unitary ensemble (CUE), valid for all real values of the time parameter, and analyze their asymptotic behavior in different regimes. In particular, for the second-order SFF, we derive an exact closed-form expression in terms of polygamma functions. In the limit of infinite matrix size, and when the time parameter is restricted to integer values, the second-order SFF reproduces the standard result established in earlier studies. When the time parameter is of order one relative to the matrix size, we demonstrate that the second-order SFF grows logarithmically with the ensemble dimension. For the third-order SFFs, a closed-form result in a special case is obtained by exploiting the translational invariance of CUE.
The spectral form factor (SFF) is a powerful diagnostic of random matrix behavior in quantum many-body systems. We introduce a family of random circuit ensembles whose SFFs can be computed . These ensembles describe the evolution of noninteracting fermions in the presence of correlated on-site potentials drawn from the eigenvalue distribution of a circular ensemble. For disorder parameters drawn from the circular unitary ensemble (CUE), we derive an exact closed form for the SFF, valid for any choice of system size L and integer time t . When the disorder is drawn from the circular orthogonal or symplectic ensembles (COE and CSE, respectively), we carry out the disorder averages analytically and reduce the computation of the SFF at integer times to a combinatorial problem amenable to transfer matrix methods. In each of these cases, the SFF grows exponentially in time, which we argue is a signature of random matrix universality at the single-particle level. Finally, we develop matchgate circuit representations of our circuit ensembles, enabling their experimental realization in quantum simulators.
A bstract This paper investigates the spectral form factor (SFF) of the quadratic R -para-particle Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev ( R -PSYK 2 ) model with various random matrix ensemble couplings. We generalize previous work on Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (GUE) couplings to all three Gaussian ensembles (GUE, GOE, GSE) and three circular ensembles (CUE, COE, CSE). Through analytical and numerical methods, we establish precise correspondences between GUE and CUE results, demonstrating their SFFs satisfy KGUE(2t) {\mathcal{K}}_{\textrm{GUE}}(2t) KGUE​(2t) K GUE 2 t ≈ KCUE(t) {\mathcal{K}}_{\textrm{CUE}}(t) KCUE​(t) K CUE t in the time regime 1 ≪ t ≪ N . For the symplectic ensembles, we observe similar behavior with appropriate time rescaling, while we only provide the calculation method for the orthogonal ensembles.
We show the emergence of random matrix theory (RMT) spectral correlations in the chaotic phase of generic, periodically kicked, interacting, quantum many-body systems by analytically calculating the spectral form factor (SFF), K ( t ) , up to two leading orders in time, t . We explicitly consider the presence or absence of time-reversal ( T ) symmetry to investigate all three Dyson symmetry classes, namely, the circular orthogonal ensemble (COE) for T -invariant systems with T 2 = 1 , the circular unitary ensemble (CUE) in the absence of T symmetry, and the circular symplectic ensemble (CSE) for T -invariant systems with T 2 = − 1 . Our derivation applies the random phase approximation to perform ensemble averages, and we give its justification for generic many-body interactions. We express the SFF as a sum of contributions of certain diagrams. While the number of diagrams that contribute to the SFF in the first and second orders in t for the COE and CUE classes is finite, the number of such diagrams is exponentially large in t for the CSE class. Thus, we have developed a new diagrammatic technique that uses reduced diagrams to incorporate contributions from many diagrams. For the COE class, we show that beyond Thouless time t * , the SFF takes the form K ( t ) ≃ 2 t − 2 t 2 / N up to second order in time, where N is the Hilbert space dimension. For the CUE class, we show that K ( t ) ≃ t beyond t * , and there is no universal term in the second order, unlike the COE case. For the CSE class, we show that K ( t ) ≃ 2 t + 2 t 2 / N up to two orders in time beyond t * . The above findings of the SFF up to second order in time are in agreement with the RMT predictions for these classes. In all three cases, the scaling of t * with system size L is determined by the eigenvalues of a doubly stochastic matrix M . For strongly interacting fermionic chains, M is S U ( 2 ) invariant in all three cases, leading to t * ∝ L 2 in the presence of U ( 1 ) symmetry. In the absence of U ( 1 ) symmetry, we find t *
We consider systems of fermions evolved by noninteracting unitary circuits with correlated on-site potentials. When these potentials are drawn from the eigenvalue distribution of a circular random matrix ensemble, the single-particle sector exhibits chaotic dynamics. The corresponding many-body spectral form factors (SFFs) can be computed exactly, revealing signatures of single-particle chaos in the many-body spectral statistics. Due to the absence of interactions the SFF grows exponentially in time, a result which we demonstrate through simple arguments, scaling collapses, and closed-form evaluation of the SFF. Upon introducing interactions, the SFF crosses over to a linear growth regime consistent with many-body random matrix universality. Our exact results for the SFF provide a baseline for future studies of the crossover between single-particle and many-body random matrix behavior.
Abstract In this article, using the principles of Random Matrix Theory (RMT) with Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (GUE), we give a measure of quantum chaos by quantifying Spectral From Factor (SFF) appearing from the computation of two point Out of Time Order Correlation function (OTOC) expressed in terms of square of the commutator bracket of quantum operators which are separated in time scale. We also provide a strict model independent bound on the measure of quantum chaos, −1/N (1 − 1/π) ≤ SFF ≤ 0 and 0 ≤ SFF ≤ 1/πN, valid for thermal systems with large and small number of degrees of freedom respectively. We have studied both the early and late behaviour of SFF to check the validity and applicability of our derived bound. Based on the appropriate physical arguments we give a precise mathematical derivation to establish this alternative strict bound of quantum chaos. Finally, we provide an example of integrability from GUE based RMT from Toda Lattice model to explicitly show the application of our derived bound on SFF to quantify chaos.
Random matrix spectral correlations is a defining feature of quantum chaos. Here, we study such correlations in a minimal model of chaotic many-body quantum dynamics where interactions are confined to the system’s boundary, dubbed , in terms of the spectral form factor and its fluctuations. We exactly calculate the latter in the limit of large local Hilbert space dimension q q for different classes of random boundary interactions and find it to coincide with random matrix theory, possibly after a non-zero Thouless time. The latter effect is due to a drastic enhancement of the spectral form factor, when integer time and system size fulfill a resonance condition. We compare our semiclassical (large q q ) results with numerics at small local Hilbert space dimension ( q=2,3 q = 2 , 3 ) and observe qualitatively similar features as in the semiclassical regime.