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arXiv:2610.10123

Characterizing Fermionic Non-Gaussianity in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Model via Replica Twist Entropy

Ning Sun, Pengfei Zhang

quant-phcond-mat.stat-mechcond-mat.str-elSubmitted Oct 7, 2026• Announced Oct 8, 2026• 0 citations
v1 · Oct 7, 2026v2 · Oct 17, 2026
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Abstract

Understanding the non-equilibrium dynamics of quantum many-body systems plays a central role in modern many-body physics. Intriguing insights emerge from investigating how quantum resources, which are essential for achieving unambiguous quantumness, are generated and spread under chaotic quantum dynamics. In fermionic systems, non-Gaussianity constitutes an important resource beyond entanglement, characterizing the deviation of generic quantum states from free-fermion states. In this Letter, we propose using the \textit{replica twist entropy}, defined through the expectation value of a replica rotation operator with a tunable angle $α$, as a natural probe of non-Gaussianity in pure fermionic states. After deriving its behavior for typical many-body states, we establish a general framework for analyzing the replica twist entropy in solvable Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev models in the large-$N$ limit. Applying this framework to the dynamics of the thermofield double state, we uncover a novel dynamical phase diagram in the parameter space of $α$ and evolution time $t$, exhibiting spontaneous $Z_2$ symmetry breaking at $α=π/4$ and universal cusps as a function of $α$ in the long-time regime. Our results pave the way for studying non-Gaussianity in strongly correlated fermionic systems and reveal a new class of dynamical transitions probed by non-Gaussianity.

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Understanding the non-equilibrium dynamics of quantum many-body systems plays a central role in modern many-body physics. Intriguing insights emerge from investigating how quantum resources, which are essential for achieving unambiguous quantumness, are generated and spread under chaotic quantum dynamics. In fermionic systems, non-Gaussianity constitutes an important resource beyond entanglement, characterizing the deviation of generic quantum states from free-fermion states. In this Letter, we propose using the \textit{replica twist entropy}, defined through the expectation value of a replica rotation operator with a tunable angle ααα, as a natural probe of non-Gaussianity in pure fermionic states. After deriving its behavior for typical many-body states, we establish a general framework for analyzing the replica twist entropy in solvable Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev models in the large-NNN limit. Applying this framework to the dynamics of the thermofield double state, we uncover a novel dynamical phase diagram in the parameter space of ααα and evolution time ttt, exhibiting spontaneous Z2Z_2Z2​ symmetry breaking at α=π/4α=π/4α=π/4 and universal cusps as a function of ααα in the long-time regime. Our results pave the way for studying non-Gaussianity in strongly correlated fermionic systems and reveal a new class of dynamical transitions probed by non-Gaussianity.
Fermionic non-Gaussianity is a resource for universal quantum computation that can be generated by interactions in quantum many-body systems. Using the magic Rényi entropy (MRE) as a measure of non-Gaussianity, we derive its universal upper bound and Haar mean, proving that typical Haar-random states attain the maximal MRE density of ln⁡(4/3)\ln(4/3)ln(4/3) per Majorana in the large-system limit. We also show that the MRE can differ extensively between states with identical covariance matrices. To investigate how non-Gaussianity grows toward this maximal density, we evolve a Gaussian state in imaginary and real time under the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Hamiltonian. By varying the imaginary- and real-time durations, we identify a first-order transition marked by a kink in the MRE density and spontaneous breaking of the permutation symmetry among the four copies used to evaluate the MRE. This transition represents a qualitative change in the non-Gaussianity of the state that is not reflected in the thermal free energy.
Understanding the computational complexity of quantum states is a central challenge in quantum many-body physics. In qubit systems, fermionic Gaussian states can be efficiently simulated on classical computers and hence can be employed as a natural baseline for evaluating quantum complexity. In this work, we develop a framework for quantifying fermionic magic resources, also referred to as fermionic non-Gaussianity, which constitutes an essential resource for universal quantum computation. We leverage the algebraic structure of the fermionic commutant to define the fermionic antiflatness (FAF)—an efficiently computable and experimentally accessible measure of non-Gaussianity, with a clear physical interpretation in terms of Majorana fermion correlation functions. Studying systems in equilibrium, we show that FAF detects phase transitions, reveals universal features of critical points, and uncovers special solvable points in many-body systems. Extending the analysis to out-of-equilibrium settings, we demonstrate that fermionic magic resources become more abundant in highly excited eigenstates of many-body systems. We further investigate the growth and saturation of FAF under ergodic many-body dynamics, highlighting the roles of conservation laws and locality in constraining the increase of non-Gaussianity during unitary evolution. This work provides a framework for probing quantum many-body complexity from the perspective of fermionic Gaussian states and opens up directions for investigating fermionic magic resources in many-body systems. Our results establish fermionic non-Gaussianity, alongside entanglement and nonstabilizerness, as a resource relevant not only to foundational studies but also to experimental platforms aiming to achieve quantum advantage.
Quantum entanglement and quantum magic are two distinct fundamental resources that enable quantum systems to exhibit complex phenomena beyond the capabilities of classical computer simulations. While quantum entanglement has been extensively used to characterize both equilibrium and dynamical phases, the study of quantum magic, typically quantified by the stabilizer Rényi entropy (SRE), remains largely limited to numerical simulations of moderate system sizes. In this Letter, we establish a general framework for analyzing the SRE in solvable Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev models in the large-N limit, which enables the application of the saddle-point approximation. Applying this method to the Maldacena-Qi coupled Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model, we identify a series of first-order transitions of the SRE as the temperature is tuned. In particular, we uncover an intrinsic transition of the SRE that cannot be detected through thermodynamic quantities. We also discuss the theoretical understanding of the SRE in both the high-temperature and low-temperature limits. Our results pave the way for studying the SRE in strongly correlated fermionic systems in the thermodynamic limit and suggest a new class of transitions for which the SRE serves as an order parameter.
Equilibrium quantum many-body systems in the vicinity of phase transitions generically manifest universality. In contrast, limited knowledge has been gained on possible universal characteristics in the non-equilibrium evolution of systems in quantum critical phases. In this context, universality is generically attributed to the insensitivity of observables to the microscopic system parameters and initial conditions. Here, we present such a universal feature in the equilibration dynamics of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) Hamiltonian – a paradigmatic system of disordered, all-to-all interacting fermions that has been designed as a phenomenological description of quantum critical regions. We drive the system far away from equilibrium by performing a global quench, and track how its ensemble average relaxes to a steady state. Employing state-of-the-art numerical simulations for the exact evolution, we reveal that the disorder-averaged evolution of few-body observables, including the quantum Fisher information and low-order moments of local operators, exhibit within numerical resolution a universal equilibration process. Under a straightforward rescaling, data that correspond to different initial states collapse onto a universal curve, which can be well approximated by a Gaussian throughout large parts of the evolution. To reveal the physics behind this process, we formulate a general theoretical framework based on the Novikov–Furutsu theorem. This framework extracts the disorder-averaged dynamics of a many-body system as an effective dissipative evolution, and can have applications beyond this work. The exact non-Markovian evolution of the SYK ensemble is very well captured by Bourret–Markov approximations, which contrary to common lore become justified thanks to the extreme chaoticity of the system, and universality is revealed in a spectral analysis of the corresponding Liouvillian.
Understanding how quantum chaotic systems generate entanglement can provide insight into their microscopic chaotic dynamics and can help distinguish between different classes of chaotic behavior. Using von Neumann entanglement entropy, we study a nonentangled state evolved under three variants of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model with a finite number of Majorana fermions N. All the variants exhibit linear entanglement growth at early times, which at late times saturates to a universal value consistent with random matrix theory (RMT), but their growth rates differ. We interpret this as a large-N effect, arising from the enhanced nonlocality of fermionic operators in SYK and binary SYK, absent in spin operators of the spin-SYK model. Numerically, we find that these differences emerge gradually with increasing N. Although all variants are quantum chaotic, their entanglement dynamics reflect varying scrambling rates and indicate that the entanglement production rate serves as a fine-grained probe of scrambling beyond conventional measures. To probe its effect on the thermalization properties of these models, we study the two-point autocorrelation function, finding no differences between the SYK variants, but deviations from RMT predictions for N≥24, particularly near the crossover from exponential decay to saturation regime.
The complex Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model, featuring fermions with all-to-all interactions, serves as a dual paradigm for understanding non-Fermi liquid behavior and the holographic nature of charged black holes. Two defining characteristics of the standard SYK model are its maximal chaos (Lyapunov exponent λL=2πTλ_{\mathrm{L}}=2πTλL​=2πT at temperature TTT), and its finite zero-temperature residual entropy. While previous studies have largely focused on couplings drawn from a zero-mean Gaussian distribution, we investigate a generalized model with a finite mean-to-standard-deviation ratio, g≡J0/δJg\equiv J_{0}/δJg≡J0​/δJ of the coupling distribution in order to get deeper insight into the evolution of chaos. We find that increasing ggg yields the following effects: (i) The system remains a fast scrambler with λL=A Tλ_{\mathrm{L}}=A~TλL​=A T, but with a suppressed coefficient A<2πA<2πA<2π. (ii) In the limit g→∞g\to \inftyg→∞, out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs) no longer exhibit exponential growth with λL≃0λ_{\mathrm{L}}\simeq 0λL​≃0. (iii) The spectral correlations indicative of late-time chaos maintain Wigner-Dyson level spacing statistics for all values of ggg. (iv) The system preserves a finite residual entropy, albeit with reduced magnitude, for all ggg values. We conclude that in this generalized SYK model, there is a chaotic to non-chaotic crossover. Moreover different measures of chaos decouple, demonstrating that the presence of finite residual entropy does not strictly imply maximal chaos.