Powered by symmetry

Rômulo F. Abreu, Raúl O. Vallejos

The quantum baker map possesses two symmetries: a canonical ``spatial'' symmetry, and a time-reversal symmetry. We show that, even when these features are taken into account, the asymptotic entangling power of the baker's map does not always agree with the predictions of random matrix theory. We have verified that the dimension of the Hilbert space is the crucial parameter that determines whether the entangling properties of the baker map are universal or not. For power-of-2 dimensions, i.e., qubit systems, an anomalous entangling power is observed; otherwise the behavior of the baker map is consistent with random matrix theories. We also derive a general formula that relates the asymptotic entangling power of an arbitrary unitary with properties of its reduced eigenvectors.

Noriaki Horiuchi

Axel Schulze‐Halberg

We show that certain fractional power potentials possess the hidden symmetry as defined by M. Znojil. Schrödinger equations for such symmetric potentials are shown to be related to each other by a simple change of coordinate which involves a fractional power of the imaginary unit i. Our result explains and generalizes a recent one on two particular fractional power potentials.

Ian Low, Jens Koch, Sahel Ashhab

The quantum Rabi model is a standard effective Hamiltonian in studies of light-matter interaction, capturing the simplest nontrivial setting in which a qubit couples to a single harmonic oscillator. Within the broader Rabi family, we focus on two special cases: the Jaynes-Cummings (JC) model, which carries an explicit $U(1)$ symmetry, and the asymmetric quantum Rabi model (AQRM), which possesses a parameter-dependent "hidden'' symmetry that appears only at integer bias, $\varepsilon/ω\in\mathbb{Z}$, and is not manifest in the Hamiltonian. We use the time-averaged entangling power as an operator-level diagnostic of these symmetry structures. Since the oscillator Hilbert space is infinite-dimensional, we compare two finite input ensembles: a Haar average after Fock-space truncation and a coherent-state average at fixed mean occupation $\bar{n}$. Both diagnostics show peaks at the integer-bias points of the AQRM, where the hidden symmetry resides. In contrast, the manifest $U(1)$ symmetry at the JC point instead gives a weak dip. Thus, the time-averaged entangling power responds to both the hidden symmetry and the $U(1)$ symmetry in the Rabi family, with the sign of the response indicating how the symmetry reorganizes the spectral expansion. These results demonstrate that the entangling power can serve as an operator diagnostic to reveal the presence and properties of hidden and manifest symmetries in light-matter systems.

Maximilian Prüfer

Detlef Dürr, Stefan Teufel