Manifestations of `Scarred' Wavefunctions and Spectral Fluctuations in Quantum Chaotic Tunneling

O. Bohigas, M.J. Giannoni, C. Schmit

Enrique Louis, José Antonio Vergés, Cuevas Emilio

Luis Benet, J Flores, Hen A +3 more

Quantum–classical correspondence for the average shape of eigenfunctions and the local spectral density of states are well-known facts. In this paper, the fluctuations of the quantum wavefunctions around the classical value are discussed. A simple random matrix model leads to a Gaussian distribution of the amplitudes whose width is determined by the classical shape of the eigenfunction. To compare this prediction with numerical calculations in chaotic models of coupled quartic oscillators, we develop a rescaling method for the components. The expectations are broadly confirmed, but deviations due to scars are observed. This effect is much reduced when both Hamiltonians have chaotic dynamics.

Louis M. Pecora

M. D. Alsulami

Quantum many-body scars are atypical, non-thermal eigenstates that constitute a mechanism of weak ergodicity breaking, yet their stability in realistic, open quantum systems remains an outstanding question. We investigate the interplay between stability and quantum information dynamics within the PXP model subjected to local dissipation. Employing a non-Hermitian formalism, we analytically demonstrate and numerically corroborate that scar eigenstates possess intrinsic decay rates parametrically smaller than those of the surrounding chaotic bulk, revealing a pronounced stability hierarchy. This spectral robustness is a direct manifestation of the approximate algebraic structure underpinning the scars. This resilience has direct dynamical consequences. We find a suppression of information scrambling, quantified by the out-of-time-order correlator (OTOC), for dynamics initiated from scar-like states. Analysis of entanglement dynamics reveals that quantum correlations in scar states persist for longer timescales under weak dissipation. These results demonstrate that algebraic confinement reduces the susceptibility of scar states to both dissipation and chaotic scrambling; the signature of this resilience is a persistent suppression of the scrambling rate and the presence of coherent oscillations, not a uniformly longer signal lifetime.

Lev Kaplan

We review recent progress in attaining a quantitative understanding of the scarring phenomenon, the non-random behaviour of quantum wavefunctions near unstable periodic orbits of a classically chaotic system. The wavepacket dynamics framework leads to predictions about statistical long-time and stationary properties of quantum systems with chaotic classical analogues. Many long-time quantum properties can be quantitatively understood using only short-time classical dynamics information; these include wavefunction intensity distributions, intensity correlations in phase space and correlations between wavefunctions, and distributions of decay rates and conductance peaks in weakly open systems. Strong deviations from random matrix theory are predicted and observed in the presence of short unstable periodic orbits.