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International Journal of Modern Physics B

ERGODIC CONDITION AND MAGNETIC MODELS

M. Howard Lee

Published May 30, 2007• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A condition for ergodicity is derived, applicable to a Hermitian many body model in both the classical and quantum domains. Using this ergodic condition, the validity of the ergodic hypothesis is examined in certain solvable 1d magnetic models. A simple but general picture has emerged which shows why the hypothesis can be valid and why it can also fail.

DOI
10.1142/s0217979207043877

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A condition for ergodicity is derived, applicable to a Hermitian many body model in both the classical and quantum domains. Using this ergodic condition, the validity of the ergodic hypothesis is examined in certain solvable 1d magnetic models. A simple but general picture has emerged which shows why the hypothesis can be valid and why it can also fail.
The physical theory for the ergodic hypothesis is premised on the idea that the hypothesis is measurable by scattering experiment. Therewith it proves the hypothesis by measurable properties of the response function. Birkhoff's theorem proves the ergodic hypothesis by abstract properties of phase space, the measure and transitivity. In this work we apply the two independent approaches to a particular many-body model (spin-1/2 XY model) to see whether they arrive at the same conclusions on the ergodicity question. The two approaches are compared to gain insight into their goals.
An important hypothesis in Van Hove's proof of the ergodicity of dissipative quantum systems is the generalized microscopic reversibility condition X/sub ll'/( alpha alpha ') = X/sub l'l/( alpha ' alpha ). I t is shown how such an assumption can be avoided by deducing for a finite system a general symmetry relation which corresponds to the condition used by Stueckelberg for deriving the H-theorem. This general symmetry relation considered in the limit of an infinite system ensures the correct statistical behavior of the system for very large time. The calculation of the trace in the limiting case of an infinite system is discussed. (auth)
We study the quantum-classical correspondence for systems with interacting spin particles that are strongly chaotic in the classical limit. This is done in the presence of constants of motion associated with the fixed angular momenta of individual spins. Our analysis of the Lyapunov spectra reveals that the largest Lyapunov exponent agrees with the Lyapunov exponent that determines the local instability of each individual spin moving under the influence of all other spins. Within this picture, we introduce a rigorous and simple test of ergodicity for the spin motion, and use it to identify when classical chaos is both strong and global in phase space. In the quantum domain, our analysis of the Hamiltonian matrix in a proper representation allows us to obtain the conditions for the onset of quantum chaos as a function of the model parameters. From the comparison between the quantum and classical domains, we demonstrate that quantum quantities, such as the local density of states (LDoS) and the shape of the chaotic eigenfunctions written in the noninteracting many-body basis, have well-defined classical counterparts. We also find a relationship between the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy and the width of the LDoS, which is useful for studies of many-body dynamics.
Boltzmann's ergodic hypothesis furnishes a possible explanation for the emergence of statistical mechanics in the framework of classical physics. In quantum mechanics, the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH) is instead generally considered as a possible route to thermalization. This is because the notion of ergodicity itself is vague in the quantum world and it is often simply taken as a synonym for thermalization. Here we show, in an elementary way, that when quantum ergodicity is properly defined, it is, in fact, equivalent to ETH. In turn, ergodicity is equivalent to thermalization, thus implying the equivalence of thermalization and ETH. This result previously appeared in [De Palma et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 220401 (2015)], but becomes particularly clear in the present context. We also show that it is possible to define a classical analogue of ETH which is implicitly assumed to be satisfied when constructing classical statistical mechanics. Classical and quantum statistical mechanics are built according to the familiar standard prescription. This prescription, however, is ontologically justified only in the quantum world.
Ergodicity in quantum many-body systems is---despite its fundamental importance---still an open problem. Many-body localization provides a general framework for quantum ergodicity and may therefore offer important insights. However, the characterization of many-body localization through simple observables is a difficult task. In this article, we introduce a measure for distances in Hilbert space for spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ systems that can be interpreted as a generalization of the Anderson localization length to many-body Hilbert space. We show that this many-body localization length is equivalent to a simple local observable in real space, which can be measured in experiments of superconducting qubits, polar molecules, Rydberg atoms, and trapped ions. By using the many-body localization length and a necessary criterion for ergodicity that it provides, we study many-body localization and quantum ergodicity in power-law-interacting Ising models subject to disorder in a transverse field. Based on the nonequilibrium dynamical renormalization group, numerically exact diagonalization, and an analysis of the statistics of resonances, we find a many-body localized phase at infinite temperature for small power-law exponents. Within the applicability of these methods, we find no indications of a delocalization transition.