Black holes are conjectured to be maximally chaotic, with their quantum spectra expected to exhibit universal random-matrix correlations. This expectation, however, has so far rested largely on holographic descriptions or on many-body models in which randomness is introduced rather than derived from the microscopic degrees of freedom of the horizon itself. In the horizon matrix model, the fuzzy sphere supports highly degenerate parton states whose multiplicity accounts for the black-hole entropy. We show that quantum fluctuations of the horizon geometry lift this degeneracy and generate an ensemble of one-parton Hamiltonians. Both the operator structure and the rank-dependent covariance of this ensemble are determined by the microscopic model, rather than fixed by quenched couplings.
Despite this structured covariance, the resulting spectra exhibit GOE, GUE, and GSE statistics dictated by their antiunitary symmetry classes, with the adjacent-gap statistic becoming increasingly self-averaging with matrix size. The model also realizes the universal Pandey--Mehta orthogonal-to-unitary crossover, with the crossover scale determined by the microscopic geometric covariance. A rank-resolved variance analysis shows that the fluctuation strength remains broadly distributed across tensor ranks up to the microscopic cutoff, providing a microscopic basis for the observed Wigner--Dyson universality and effectively nonlocal dynamics. The antiunitary symmetry acts directly on the fuzzy-sphere geometry, so the Dyson class of a conditional Hamiltonian is determined by the antiunitary symmetry of the underlying quantum geometry. This provides a microscopic counterpart of the Stanford--Witten relation between geometry and random-matrix universality in JT gravity. These results establish a microscopic route from quantum horizon geometry to black-hole spectral chaos.
Black holes are conjectured to be maximally chaotic, with their quantum spectra expected to exhibit universal random-matrix correlations. This expectation, however, has so far rested largely on holographic descriptions or on many-body models in which randomness is introduced rather than derived from the microscopic degrees of freedom of the horizon itself. In the horizon matrix model, the fuzzy sphere supports highly degenerate parton states whose multiplicity accounts for the black-hole entropy. We show that quantum fluctuations of the horizon geometry lift this degeneracy and generate an ensemble of one-parton Hamiltonians. Both the operator structure and the rank-dependent covariance of this ensemble are determined by the microscopic model, rather than fixed by quenched couplings.
Despite this structured covariance, the resulting spectra exhibit GOE, GUE, and GSE statistics dictated by their antiunitary symmetry classes, with the adjacent-gap statistic becoming increasingly self-averaging with matrix size. The model also realizes the universal Pandey--Mehta orthogonal-to-unitary crossover, with the crossover scale determined by the microscopic geometric covariance. A rank-resolved variance analysis shows that the fluctuation strength remains broadly distributed across tensor ranks up to the microscopic cutoff, providing a microscopic basis for the observed Wigner--Dyson universality and effectively nonlocal dynamics. The antiunitary symmetry acts directly on the fuzzy-sphere geometry, so the Dyson class of a conditional Hamiltonian is determined by the antiunitary symmetry of the underlying quantum geometry. This provides a microscopic counterpart of the Stanford--Witten relation between geometry and random-matrix universality in JT gravity. These results establish a microscopic route from quantum horizon geometry to black-hole spectral chaos.
A class of tensor models were recently outlined as potentially calculable examples of holography: their perturbative large-N behavior is similar to the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model, but they are fully quantum mechanical (in the sense that there is no quenched disorder averaging). These facts make them intriguing tentative models for quantum black holes. In this note, we explicitly diagonalize the simplest non-trivial Gurau-Witten tensor model and study its spectral and late-time properties. We find parallels to (a single sample of) SYK where some of these features were recently attributed to random matrix behavior and quantum chaos. In particular, the spectral form factor exhibits a dip-ramp-plateau structure after a running time average, in qualitative agreement with SYK. But we also observe that even though the spectrum has a unique ground state, it has a huge (quasi-?)degeneracy of intermediate energy states, not seen in SYK. If one ignores the delta function due to the degeneracies however, there is level repulsion in the unfolded spacing distribution hinting chaos. Furthermore, there are gaps in the spectrum. The system also has a spectral mirror symmetry which we trace back to the presence of a unitary operator with which the Hamiltonian anticommutes. We use it to argue that to the extent that the model exhibits random matrix behavior, it is controlled not by the Dyson ensembles, but by the BDI (chiral orthogonal) class in the Altland-Zirnbauer classification.
A class of tensor models were recently outlined as potentially calculable examples of holography: their perturbative large-N behavior is similar to the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model, but they are fully quantum mechanical (in the sense that there is no quenched disorder averaging). These facts make them intriguing tentative models for quantum black holes. In this note, we explicitly diagonalize the simplest non-trivial Gurau-Witten tensor model and study its spectral and late-time properties. We find parallels to (a single sample of) SYK where some of these features were recently attributed to random matrix behavior and quantum chaos. In particular, the spectral form factor exhibits a dip-ramp plateau structure after a running time average, in qualitative agreement with SYK. But we also observe that even though the spectrum has a unique ground state, it has a huge (quasi-?)degeneracy of intermediate energy states, not seen in SYK. If one ignores the delta function due to the degeneracies however, there is level repulsion in the unfolded spacing distribution hinting chaos. Furthermore, there are gaps in the spectrum. The system also has a spectral mirror symmetry which we trace back to the presence of a unitary operator with which the Hamiltonian anticommutes. We use it to argue that to the extent that the model exhibits random matrix behavior, it is controlled not by the Dyson ensembles, but by the BDI (chiral orthogonal) class in the Altland-Zirnbauer classification.
This paper investigates whether gravitational dynamics can be classified into distinct universality classes based on the architecture of chaos, rather than viewing black holes as a monolithic category. The authors build on the Maldacena-Shenker-Stanford (MSS) chaos bound, which establishes that black holes saturate the universal limit on information scrambling, making them maximally chaotic with a quantum Lyapunov exponent λ_L = 2πT. The paper proposes a fundamental reclassification. The Thick Chaos Universality Class comprises systems that saturate the MSS bound—these are the familiar black holes of Einstein gravity with dense, continuous spectra and immediate, complete transport of local instabilities. Their scrambling time is short: t_* ~ β log S. The Thin Chaos Universality Class is a mathematically coherent but hypothetical regime, defined by the structural conditions of the Trojan Universality Class (TUC): two dominant oscillatory modes, a persistent spectral gap Δ > 0, and near-integrability. In this class, the spectral gap suppresses transport, confining local instability and preventing it from acquiring operational reach. The central mathematical result is that the Thouless time—the timescale on which chaos becomes effective—scales exponentially with the spectral gap in the Thin Chaos Class: t_Th ~ (1/Δ)exp[(Δ/ε)^α], where ε is the perturbation strength. This establishes a rigorous distinction between the two classes: Thick Chaos has a short Thouless time; Thin Chaos delays chaos for exponentially long periods. The transition between classes occurs when Δ/ε ~ 1, marking the collapse of spectral protection—a genuine phase transition rather than a smooth interpolation. The paper translates these gravitational conditions into holographic terms: a CFT with a spectral gap and large Thouless time would be the signature of the Thin Chaos Class. The authors are transparent that the Thin Chaos Class may not be realized in nature. The results are theoretical and conditional on TUC assumptions, but they provide a precise mathematical language for describing what a non-maximal black hole would look like—a work of theoretical cartography that illuminates why maximal chaos is the rule by defining the mathematically possible exception.
Quantum chaos entails an entropic and computational obstruction to describing a system and thus is intrinsically difficult to characterize. An understanding of quantum chaos is fundamentally related to the mechanism of thermalization in many-body systems and the quantum nature of black holes. In this thesis we adopt the view that quantum information theory provides a powerful framework in which to elucidate chaos in strongly-interacting quantum systems. We first push towards a more precise understanding of chaotic dynamics by relating different diagnostics of chaos, studying the time-evolution of random matrix Hamiltonians, and quantifying random matrix behavior in physical systems. We derive relations between out-of-time ordered correlation functions, spectral quantities, and frame potentials to relate the scrambling of quantum information, decay of correlators, and Haar-randomness. We give analytic expressions for these quantities in random matrix theory to explore universal aspects of late-time dynamics. Motivated by our random matrix results, we define k-invariance in order to capture the onset of random matrix behavior in physical systems. We then refine our diagnostics in order to study chaotic systems with symmetry by considering Haar-randomness with respect to quotients of the unitary group, and in doing so we generalize our quantum information machinery. We further consider extended random matrix ensembles in the context of strongly-interacting quantum systems dual to black holes. Lastly, we study operator growth in classes of random quantum circuits.
We consider the geometry of quantum states associated with random matrix Hamiltonians belonging to ensembles that exhibit an integrable-to-chaotic transition in terms of the nearest-neighbour energy level spacing distribution, focusing on the β-Gaussian ensembles with generic Dyson index. For the tridiagonal Gaussian β-ensemble, which shows chaos-to-integrability transition with varying Dyson index, we first calculate an analytical expression for the ensemble-averaged fidelity susceptibility for a two-by-two matrix representation of the Hamiltonian for generic values of the Dyson index, and show that it diverges as the total Hamiltonian, which is the sum of a diagonal matrix with independent elements and a tridiagonal β-matrix, goes over to the integrable phase. Next, for large-dimensional matrices, we numerically compute the fidelity susceptibility and the quantum metric tensor, respectively, for a one-parameter and a two-parameter class of Hamiltonians that we construct from the β-ensemble, and find scaling relations of these quantities for chaotic and integrable phases. We also consider variations of the β-ensemble, such as the one that preserves the rotational invariance of the ensemble, and compute the relevant ensemble-averaged fidelity susceptibility to show that it has similar features as the tridiagonal ensemble in the integrable as well as the chaotic phase, thereby establishing the universality of these properties. Finally, the presence of non-vanishing non-diagonal elements, which arises due to the rotational non-invariance of the β-ensembles, is a specific feature of the corresponding metric tensor, and we use this to illuminate the difference between the quantum state space geometry of these ensembles and the rotationally invariant ones, such as the classical Gaussian ensembles.
Under the framework of unified time scale, boundary time geometry, Matrix Universe THE--MATRIX, and Quantum Cellular Automaton (QCA) Universe, we construct a structural unified theory for ``Quantum Chaos and Eigenstate Thermalization''. The Bohigas--Giannoni--Schmit (BGS) conjecture suggests that spectral statistics of quantum chaotic systems follow Random Matrix Theory (RMT), while the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH) explains thermalization of isolated quantum systems from the perspective of matrix elements of local observables. Based on the unified time scale mother formula equation \kappa(\omega) =\varphi'(\omega){\pi} =\rho_{rel}(\omega) =1{2\pi}tr Q(\omega), equation this paper interprets quantum chaos and thermalization as: ergodicity of scattering phase flow in the Matrix Universe and operator mixing in the QCA Universe; and further regards spectral rigidity and RMT universality as statistical inevitable results of unified time scale density under maximum entropy principle. Specifically: 1. In the Matrix Universe, defining the ``scattering phase flow'' dynamical system on the energy shell, we prove that when the scattering matrix S(\omega) exhibits chaotic behavior (positive Lyapunov exponent or mixing), the spectral correlation function of the unified time scale \kappa(\omega) asymptotically approaches the RMT (GOE/GUE) kernel function equation R_2(\omega_1,\omega_2) \simeq 1-\Bigl(\sin[\pi\bar\kappa(\omega_1-\omega_2)]{\pi\bar\kappa(\omega_1-\omega_2)}\Bigr)^2, equation thereby providing a scattering--spectral unified proof for the BGS conjecture. 2. In the QCA Universe, considering the operator algebra \mathcal A_{qloc} of local cell observables and the Heisenberg evolution generated by the unitary update U, we prove that for generic chaotic QCA (satisfying algebraic mixing condition), local operators spread to global operators under time evolution, and their matrix elements in energy eigenstates satisfy the ETH ansatz equation \langle E_a|\mathcal O|E_b\rangle \simeq \mathcal O(E)\delta_{ab} +e^{-S(E)/2}f_{\mathcal O}(E,\Delta E)R_{ab}, equation where R_{ab} is a random variable, establishing the microscopic mechanism of thermalization in the discrete universe. 3. Investigating the growth of entanglement entropy S_{ent}(t) in QCA time evolution, we find that under unified time scale control, the entanglement growth rate is bounded by the Lieb--Robinson velocity and related to the ``boundary time area law''. For chaotic systems, linear growth S_{ent}(t)\propto t is consistent with the entropy production rate of the scattering matrix. 4. Under unified time scale constraints, writing the spectral form factor (SFF) K(t) as the Fourier transform of the two-point correlation of \kappa(\omega), we demonstrate the ``slope--dip--plateau'' structure of SFF in the Matrix--QCA universe, interpreting the linear ramp region as a direct manifestation of the spectral rigidity of the unified time scale. 5. The appendix systematically organizes: standard definitions of quantum chaos, RMT spectral statistics and SFF; operator spreading and out-of-time-order correlator (OTOC) description in QCA; rigorous formulation of ETH; and the maximum entropy derivation of unified time scale spectral correlations. Results indicate a purely structural unified picture: quantum chaos and eigenstate thermalization can be viewed as the statistical behavior of scattering phase flow in the Matrix Universe and operator mixing in the QCA Universe under the unified time scale, thereby answering the structural version of ``why quantum chaos and thermalization occur'' within the unified universe mother structure.