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Physical Review A

Nature of quantum chaos in spin systems

Gerhard H. Muller

Published Oct 1, 1986• 21 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A novel concept for quantum chaos in spin systems is proposed which differs distinctively from concepts currently in use. It is argued (a) that the definition of quantum chaos cannot be based on the correspondence principle and (b) that quantum chaos is not equivalent to statistical behavior. Quantum chaos in spin systems implies the existence of a new type of spectrum consisting of excitations which do not form regular patterns with a multiparameter continuum structure in the thermodynamic limit, thus removing the constraint imposed by van Hove singularities that time-dependent correlation functions for pure quantum states cannot decay more rapidly than as powers of t. The irregular spectrum is caused by strong level repulsion resulting from the lack of a sufficient number of conservation laws in nonintegrable quantum many-body systems. The similarities and differences between quantum and classical chaos and, more generally, between quantum (non)integrability and classical (non)integrability are discussed in detail.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.34.3345

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A novel concept for quantum chaos in spin systems is proposed which differs distinctively from concepts currently in use. It is argued (a) that the definition of quantum chaos cannot be based on the correspondence principle and (b) that quantum chaos is not equivalent to statistical behavior. Quantum chaos in spin systems implies the existence of a new type of spectrum consisting of excitations which do not form regular patterns with a multiparameter continuum structure in the thermodynamic limit, thus removing the constraint imposed by van Hove singularities that time-dependent correlation functions for pure quantum states cannot decay more rapidly than as powers of t. The irregular spectrum is caused by strong level repulsion resulting from the lack of a sufficient number of conservation laws in nonintegrable quantum many-body systems. The similarities and differences between quantum and classical chaos and, more generally, between quantum (non)integrability and classical (non)integrability are discussed in detail.
The problems of chaos and relaxation have a fundamental importance in the study of many-body classical and quantum systems. We investigate some of the issues related to these problems numerically in classical and quantum spin systems. New results reported in this thesis include: (i) A remarkably simple algorithm for discriminating chaotic from nonchaotic behavior in classical systems using a time series of one macroscopic observable. The effectiveness of this algorithm stems from the qualitative differences in the power spectra of chaotic and nonchaotic systems. (ii) A modified version of the Onsager regression relation applicable to pure quantum states. (iii) An efficient algorithm for computing the infinitetemperature time correlation functions in systems with large Hilbert spaces. (iv) Absence of exponential sensitivity to small perturbations in macroscopic nonintegrable systems of spins 1/2 . Such a behavior is contrasted with the exponential sensitivity to small perturbations in chaotic classical spin systems. (v) Accurate numerical investigations of free induction decay and spin diffusion in certain spin lattices. The consequences of these results have implications for the foundations of statistical mechanics or practical problems such as computing the long-time behavior of the free induction decay in solids.
Quantum chaos has recently received increasing attention due to its relationship with experimental and theoretical studies of nonequilibrium quantum dynamics, thermalization, and the scrambling of quantum information. In an isolated system, quantum chaos refers to properties of the spectrum that emerge when the classical counterpart of the system is chaotic. However, despite experimental progress leading to longer coherence times, interactions with an environment can never be neglected, which calls for a definition of quantum chaos in dissipative systems. Advances in this direction were brought by the Grobe-Haake-Sommers (GHS) conjecture, which connects chaos in a dissipative classical system with cubic repulsion of the eigenvalues of the quantum counterpart and regularity with linear level repulsion. Here, we show that the GHS conjecture does not hold for the open Dicke model, which is a spin-boson model of experimental interest. We show that the onset of cubic level repulsion in the open quantum model is not always related with chaotic structures in the classical limit. This result challenges the universality of the GHS conjecture and raises the question of what is the source of spectral correlations in open quantum systems.
We introduce aspects of quantum chaos by analyzing the eigenvalues and the eigenstates of quantum many-body systems. The properties of quantum systems whose classical counterparts are chaotic differ from those whose classical counterparts are not chaotic. The spectrum of the first exhibits repulsion of the energy levels. This is one of the main signatures of quantum chaos. We show how level repulsion develops in one-dimensional systems of interacting spins 1/2 which are devoid of random elements and involve only two-body interactions. In addition to the statistics of the eigenvalues, we analyze how the structure of the eigenstates may indicate chaos. The programs used to obtain the data are available online.
Using the key properties of chaos, i.e. ergodicity and exponential instability, as a resource to control classical dynamics has a long and considerable history. However, in the context of controlling "chaotic" quantum unitary dynamics, the situation is far more tenuous. The classical concepts of exponential sensitivity to trajectory initial conditions and ergodicity do not directly translate into quantum unitary evolution. Nevertheless properties inherent to quantum chaos can take on those roles: i) the dynamical sensitivity to weak perturbations, measured by the fidelity decay, serves a similar purpose as the classical sensitivity to initial conditions; and ii) paired with the fact that quantum chaotic systems are conjectured to be statistically described by random matrix theory, implies a method to translate the ergodic feature into the control of quantum dynamics. With those two properties, it can be argued that quantum chaotic dynamical systems, in principle, allow for full controllability beyond a characteristic time that scales only logarithmically with system size and ℏ−1\hbar^{-1}ℏ−1. In the spirit of classical targeting, it implies that it is possible to fine tune the immense quantum interference with weak perturbations and steer the system from any initial state into any desired target state, subject to constraints imposed by conserved quantities. In contrast, integrable dynamics possess neither ergodicity nor exponential instability, and thus the weak perturbations apparently must break the integrability for control purposes. The main ideas are illustrated with the quantum kicked rotor. The production of revivals, cat-like entangled states, and the transition from any random state to any other random state is possible as demonstrated.
We introduce aspects of quantum chaos by analyzing the eigenvalues and the eigenstates of quantum many-body systems. The properties of quantum systems whose classical counterparts are chaotic differ from those whose classical counterparts are not chaotic. The spectrum of the first exhibits repulsion of the energy levels, which is one of the main signatures of quantum chaos. We show how level repulsion develops in one-dimensional systems of interacting spins 1/2 which are devoid of random elements and involve only two-body interactions. In addition to the statistics of the eigenvalues, we analyze how the structure of the eigenstates may indicate chaos. The programs used to obtain the data are available online.
We describe a quantum many-body system undergoing multiple resonant tunneling which exhibits chaotic behavior in numerical simulations of a mean field approximation. This phenomenon, which has no counterpart in the classical limit, is due to effective nonlinearities in the tunneling process and can be observed in principle within a heterostructure. 03.65.-w, 05.45.+b, 73.40.Gk Typeset using REVT E X In current studies the problem of quantum chaos is usually posed in the following terms. We are given a system which exhibits chaotic behavior classically: does this property survive quantization? Typically one studies the spectrum of the quantum mechanical Hamiltonian operator. However spectral differences at the quantum level between classically integrable and chaotic systems do not seem to imply dramatic differences in the time evolution of the quantum mechanical observables. Relics of classical chaos exist in low dimensional systems in short wavelength or large quantum numbers limits ...