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arXiv:2605.24115

Anderson Localization: A Floquet operator Krylov space perspective

Hsiu-Chung Yeh, Aditi Mitra

cond-mat.dis-nnquant-phSubmitted May 22, 2026• Announced May 26, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

The problem of Anderson localization, as well as the single particle localization-delocalizaton transition of the Aubry-André model, is studied employing operator Krylov space methods. It is shown that even when the dynamics is generated by a Hamiltonian, studying the dynamics at stroboscopic rather than continuous times has its advantages. In particular, mapping the dynamics to an effective Floquet problem results in an operator Krylov space description where quantities such as the spectral function can be computed with fewer computational resources, while a moment method exists that allows for the extraction of Krylov parameters directly from the discrete time autocorrelation function. For stroboscopic dynamics, the operator Krylov space corresponds to the dynamics of an edge operator of an inhomogeneous Floquet transverse field Ising model, with the parameters of this effective model generated recursively. The Krylov parameters show disorder-averaged renormalization with their distribution narrowing as the recursion step increases. It is shown that a more physical spectral function is obtained from the Krylov parameters obtained from the disorder-averaged autocorrelation function, rather than the disorder-averaged Krylov parameters. The delocalized (localized) phase is shown to correspond to the appearance (absence) of a Porter-Thomas distribution, a ballistically propagating (localized) wavefront in operator Krylov space, and a smooth (discrete) Berstein-Szegö power-spectrum. The localization-delocalization transition is also demonstrated in operator Krylov space. A Porter-Thomas distribution is also observed at the critical point. The long-time dynamics and the inverse participation ratio at the critical point is shown to exhibit behavior consistent with a multi-fractal scaling with system size.

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The problem of Anderson localization, as well as the single particle localization-delocalizaton transition of the Aubry-André model, is studied employing operator Krylov space methods. It is shown that even when the dynamics is generated by a Hamiltonian, studying the dynamics at stroboscopic rather than continuous times has its advantages. In particular, mapping the dynamics to an effective Floquet problem results in an operator Krylov space description where quantities such as the spectral function can be computed with fewer computational resources, while a moment method exists that allows for the extraction of Krylov parameters directly from the discrete time autocorrelation function. For stroboscopic dynamics, the operator Krylov space corresponds to the dynamics of an edge operator of an inhomogeneous Floquet transverse field Ising model, with the parameters of this effective model generated recursively. The Krylov parameters show disorder-averaged renormalization with their distribution narrowing as the recursion step increases. It is shown that a more physical spectral function is obtained from the Krylov parameters obtained from the disorder-averaged autocorrelation function, rather than the disorder-averaged Krylov parameters. The delocalized (localized) phase is shown to correspond to the appearance (absence) of a Porter-Thomas distribution, a ballistically propagating (localized) wavefront in operator Krylov space, and a smooth (discrete) Berstein-Szegö power-spectrum. The localization-delocalization transition is also demonstrated in operator Krylov space. A Porter-Thomas distribution is also observed at the critical point. The long-time dynamics and the inverse participation ratio at the critical point is shown to exhibit behavior consistent with a multi-fractal scaling with system size.
Recursion methods such as Krylov techniques map complex dynamics to an effective noninteracting problem in one dimension. For example, the operator Krylov space for Floquet dynamics can be mapped to the dynamics of an edge operator of the one-dimensional Floquet inhomogeneous transverse field Ising model (ITFIM), where the latter, after a Jordan-Wigner transformation, is a Floquet model of noninteracting Majorana fermions and the couplings correspond to Krylov angles. We present an application of this showing that a moment method exists where given an autocorrelation function, one can construct the corresponding Krylov angles and from that the corresponding Floquet ITFIM. Consequently, when no solutions for the Krylov angles are obtained, it indicates that the autocorrelation is not generated by unitary dynamics. We highlight this by studying certain special cases: stable mmm-period dynamics derived using the method of continued fractions, exponentially decaying, and power-law decaying stroboscopic dynamics. Remarkably, our examples of stable mmm-period dynamics correspond to mmm-period edge modes for the Floquet ITFIM where, deep in the chain, the couplings correspond to a critical phase. Our results pave the way to engineer Floquet systems with desired properties of edge modes and also provide examples of persistent edge modes in gapless Floquet systems.
Recursion methods such as Krylov techniques map complex dynamics to an effective non-interacting problem in one dimension. For example, the operator Krylov space for Floquet dynamics can be mapped to the dynamics of an edge operator of the one-dimensional Floquet inhomogeneous transverse field Ising model (ITFIM), where the latter, after a Jordan-Wigner transformation, is a Floquet model of non-interacting Majorana fermions, and the couplings correspond to Krylov angles. We present an application of this showing that a moment method exists where given an autocorrelation function, one can construct the corresponding Krylov angles, and from that the corresponding Floquet-ITFIM. Consequently, when no solutions for the Krylov angles are obtained, it indicates that the autocorrelation is not generated by unitary dynamics. We highlight this by studying certain special cases: stable mmm-periodic dynamics derived using the method of continued fractions, exponentially decaying and power-law decaying stroboscopic dynamics. Remarkably, our examples of stable mmm-periodic dynamics correspond to mmm-period edge modes for the Floquet-ITFIM where deep in the chain, the couplings correspond to a critical phase. Our results pave the way to engineer Floquet systems with desired properties of edge modes and also provide examples of persistent edge modes in gapless Floquet systems.
It is shown that the stroboscopic time evolution under a Floquet unitary, in any spatial dimension, and of any Hermitian operator, can be mapped to an operator Krylov space, which is identical to that generated by the edge operator of the noninteracting Floquet transverse-field Ising model (TFIM) in one-spatial dimension, and with inhomogeneous Ising and transverse field couplings. The latter has four topological phases reflected by the absence (topologically trivial) or presence (topologically nontrivial) of edge modes at 0 and/or $\ensuremath{\pi}$ quasienergies. It is shown that the Floquet dynamics share certain universal features characterized by how the Krylov parameters vary in the topological phase diagram of the Floquet TFIM with homogeneous couplings. These results are highlighted through examples, all chosen for numerical convenience to be in one spatial dimension: nonintegrable Floquet spin 1/21/21/2 chains and Floquet Z3{Z}_{3}Z3​ clock model where the latter hosts period-tripled edge modes.
We numerically study spectral and wave-function properties, as well as time evolution, in finite-size commensurate approximations of the 3D Aubry-André model. We explicitly show, through scaling analysis, the existence of two critical points. One of the critical points is a localization-delocalization transition in real-space, similar to the critical point in the 3D Anderson model. The other is a localization-delocalization transition in a dual momentum space, which does not have any analog in the 3D Anderson model. We estimate their values from spectral measures, such as the gap ratio and the spectral form factor, as well as from wave-function measures, such as the inverse participation ratio and the participation entropy. Additionally, we demonstrate that both critical points exhibit hallmarks of critical points between quantum ergodicity and localization. First, the eigenstates and the eigenspectrum at the critical point fulfill the mutual universal relation between the eigenspectrum compressibility χχχ and the eigenstate fractal dimension d(1)d^{(1)}d(1) [S. Jiricek et al., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 123, e2518027123 (2026)]. Second, the dynamics of the wave packet at the critical point is governed by the critical dynamical exponent zzz, characterized by the spectral fractal dimension and the dimensionality of the lattice [M. Hopjan and L. Vidmar, Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 060401 (2025)]. Thus, similarly to the 3D Anderson model, the critical dynamical exponent is sub-diffusive with the value of z=3z=3z=3.
The Krylov subspace expansion is a workhorse method for sparse numerics that has been increasingly explored as source of physical insight into many-body dynamics in recent years. In this work we revisit the venerable Anderson model of localization in dimensions d=1,2,3,4d=1, 2, 3, 4d=1,2,3,4 to construct local integrals of motion (LIOM) in Krylov space. These appear as zero eigenvalue edge states of an effective hopping problem in the Krylov superoperator subspace and can be analytically constructed given the Lanczos coefficients. We exploit this idea, focusing on d=3d=3d=3, to study the manifestation of the disorder driven Anderson transition in the anatomy of LIOMs. We find that the increasing complexity of the Krylov operators results in a suppression of the fluctuations of the Lanczos coefficients. As such, one can study the phenomenology of the integrals of motion in the disorder averaged Krylov chain. We find edge states localized on vanishing fraction of Krylov space (of dimension DK=V2D_K=V^2DK​=V2 for cubes of volume VVV), both in localized and extended phases. Importantly, in the localized phase, disorder induces powerlaw decaying dimerization in the (Krylov) hopping problem, producing stretched exponential decay of the LIOMs in Krylov space with a stretching exponent 1/2d1/2d1/2d. Metallic LIOMs are completely delocalized albeit across only ∝DK\propto \sqrt{D_K}∝DK​​ states. Critical LIOMs exhibit powerlaw decay with an exponent matching the expected value of 0.290.290.29.
Operator spreading under stroboscopic time evolution due to a unitary is studied. An operator Krylov space is constructed and related to orthogonal polynomials on a unit circle (OPUC), as well as to the Krylov space of the edge operator of the Floquet transverse field Ising model with inhomogeneous couplings (ITFIM). The Verblunsky coefficients in the OPUC representation are related to the Krylov angles parameterizing the ITFIM. The relations between the OPUC and spectral functions are summarized and several applications are presented. These include derivation of analytic expressions for the OPUC for persistent mmm-periodic dynamics, and the numerical construction of the OPUC for autocorrelations of the homogeneous Floquet-Ising model as well as the Z3Z_3Z3​ clock model. The numerically obtained Krylov angles of the Z3Z_3Z3​ clock model with long-lived period tripled autocorrelations show a spatial periodicity of six, and this observation is used to develop an analytically solvable model for the ITFIM that mimics this behavior.