We study the level statistics of an interacting multiqubit system, namely the kicked Ising spin chain, in the regime of quantum chaos. Long range quasienergy level statistics show effects analogous to the ones observed in semiclassical systems due to the presence of short classical periodic orbits, while short range level statistics display perfect statistical agreement with random matrix theory. Even though our system possesses no classical limit, our results suggest existence of an important nonuniversal system specific behavior at short time scale, which clearly goes beyond finite size effects in random matrix theory.
We study the level statistics of an interacting multiqubit system, namely the kicked Ising spin chain, in the regime of quantum chaos. Long range quasienergy level statistics show effects analogous to the ones observed in semiclassical systems due to the presence of short classical periodic orbits, while short range level statistics display perfect statistical agreement with random matrix theory. Even though our system possesses no classical limit, our results suggest existence of an important nonuniversal system specific behavior at short time scale, which clearly goes beyond finite size effects in random matrix theory.
Quantum many-body systems are commonly considered as quantum chaotic if their spectral statistics, such as the level spacing distribution, agree with those of random matrix theory (RMT). Using the example of the kicked Ising chain we demonstrate that even if both level spacing distribution and eigenvector statistics agree well with random matrix predictions, the entanglement entropy deviates from the expected RMT behavior, i.e., the Page curve. To explain this observation we propose a quantity that is based on the effective Hamiltonian of the kicked system. Specifically, we analyze the distribution of the strengths of the effective spin interactions and compare them with analytical results that we obtain for circular ensembles. Thereby we group the effective spin interactions corresponding to the number k of spins which contribute to the interaction. By this the deviations of the entanglement entropy can be attributed to significantly different behavior of the k-spin interactions compared with RMT.
Random matrix theory (RMT) and semi-classical methods are both used to study the spectra of chaotic quantum systems. The former is usually applied to small distances within the spectrum residing on scales of the mean level spacing where the phenomenon of universality emerges. Through the quantum-classical correspondence provided by semi-classics this regime is, conversely, described by long time dynamical properties of the classical system. In the first half of this thesis we explore such a connection for the study of spectral properties of quantum graphs with dynamically broken time reversal invariance. In physical systems this invariance is often not fully broken and to emulate this we include a rank-1 perturbation on the quantum level resulting in a RMT model outside of the usual universality classes. As we further show, the outcome can depend on graph specific properties and the rank of the perturbation. For the second half of the thesis we consider an opposite limit: instead of long times we study short times, on which universality can not be expected, in a chain-like spin system. In these systems the number of spins takes on a similar role as time, therefore the short time behavior in long chains has remarkable similarities to long time dynamics in few-body system. For instance, the formulation of an evolution operator in spatial direction is possible. Exploring this spatial-time duality we address long range spectral statistic in many-body systems and, for the first time, resolve periodic orbits in a genuine many-body system from the traces of its quantum evolution.
This chapter presents an investigation of the dynamics of one anisotropic spin in an external, periodically time-dependent field. The simple quantum system displays chaotic behavior in the classical limit. Chaotic behavior in classical deterministic systems is characterized by an extremely sensitive dependence on initial conditions. The statistics of quasienergy levels are discussed for our driven spin system with a twofold purpose. The statistics of quasienergy levels is equivalent to the energy level statistics in a time-independent system and the dependence of the quasienergy level statistics on the quantum parameter is investigated. The statistical properties of the spectrum of a quantum problem in its classical limit are associated with the regularity properties of the corresponding classical system. Using the complementary approaches of phase space analysis and level statistics we have shown in both schemes that for large spins, i.e. in the semiclassical regime, stochasticity can be discussed using concepts developed for classical systems.
Many-body quantum chaos at ℏ∼1: Analytic connection to random matrix theory
A key goal of quantum chaos is to establish a relationship between widely observed universal spectral fluctuations of clean quantum systems and random matrix theory (RMT). For single particle systems with fully chaotic classical counterparts, the problem has been partly solved by Berry (1985) within the so-called diagonal approximation of semiclassical periodic-orbit sums. Derivation of the full RMT spectral form factor K(t) from semiclassics has been completed only much later in a tour de force by Mueller et al (2004). In recent years, the questions of long-time dynamics at high energies, for which the full many-body energy spectrum becomes relevant, are coming at the forefront even for simple many-body quantum systems, such as locally interacting spin chains. Such systems display two universal types of behaviour which are termed as `many-body localized phase' and `ergodic phase'. In the ergodic phase, the spectral fluctuations are excellently described by RMT, even for very simple interactions and in the absence of any external source of disorder. Here we provide the first theoretical explanation for these observations. We compute K(t) explicitly in the leading two orders in t and show its agreement with RMT for non-integrable, time-reversal invariant many-body systems without classical counterparts, a generic example of which are Ising spin 1/2 models in a periodically kicking transverse field.
A key goal of quantum chaos is to establish a relationship between widely observed universal spectral fluctuations of clean quantum systems and random matrix theory (RMT).Most prominent features of such RMT behavior with respect to a random spectrum, both encompassed in spectral pair correlation function, are statistical suppression of small level spacings (correlation hole) and enhanced stiffness of the spectrum at large spectral ranges.For single particle systems with fully chaotic classical counterparts, the problem has been partly solved by Berry [Proc.R. Soc.London, A400, 229 (1985)] within the so-called diagonal approximation of semiclassical periodic-orbit sums, while the derivation of the full RMT spectral form factor K(t) (Fourier transform of spectral pair correlation function), from semiclassics has been completed by Müller et al. [Phys.Rev. Lett.93, 014103 (2004)].In recent years, the questions of long-time dynamics at high energies, for which the full many-body energy spectrum becomes relevant, are coming at the forefront even for simple many-body quantum systems, such as locally interacting spin chains.Such systems display two universal types of behaviour which are termed as the 'many-body localized phase' and 'ergodic phase'.In the ergodic phase, the spectral fluctuations are excellently described by RMT, even for very simple interactions and in the absence of any external source of disorder.Here we provide a clear theoretical explanation for these observations.We compute K(t) in the leading two orders in t and show its agreement with RMT for non-integrable, time-reversal invariant many-body systems without classical counterparts, a generic example of which are Ising spin 1/2 models in a periodically kicking transverse field.In particular, we relate K(t) to partition functions of a class of twisted classical Ising models on a ring of size t, hence the leading order RMT behavior K(t)2t is a consequence of translation and reflection symmetry of the Ising partition function.
Multifractal dimensions allow for characterizing the localization properties of states in complex quantum systems. For ergodic states the finite-size versions of fractal dimensions converge to unity in the limit of large system size. However, the approach to the limiting behavior is remarkably slow. Thus, an understanding of the scaling and finite-size properties of fractal dimensions is essential. We present such a study for random matrix ensembles, and compare with two chaotic quantum systems-the kicked rotor and a spin chain. For random matrix ensembles we analytically obtain the finite-size dependence of the mean behavior of the multifractal dimensions, which provides a lower bound to the typical (logarithmic) averages. We show that finite statistics has remarkably strong effects, so that even random matrix computations deviate from analytic results (and show strong sample-to-sample variation), such that restoring agreement requires exponentially large sample sizes. For the quantized standard map (kicked rotor) the multifractal dimensions are found to follow the random matrix predictions closely, with the same finite statistics effects. For a XXZ spin-chain we find significant deviations from the random matrix prediction-the large-size scaling follows a system-specific path towards unity. This suggests that local many-body Hamiltonians are "weakly ergodic," in the sense that their eigenfunction statistics deviate from random matrix theory.