arXiv subjects

Camille Aron

Publications and source records attributed to Camille Aron.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Chaos from quantum bath fluctuations

The effect of a large environment on a finite-size quantum mechanical system is two-fold: It brings dissipation, but also fluctuations of thermal and quantum origin. While dissipation tends to stabilize the dynamics, we question if and how environmental quantum fluctuations can generate chaos in an otherwise classically non-chaotic system. We work out a paradigmatic model of quantum optics: the dissipative Dicke model, where a large spin interacts with a dissipative harmonic mode. We dial in the classical/quantum correspondence by working in the semiclassical regime at large but finite spin. We demonstrate that, starting from a classically regular phase space in the superradiant regime, quantum noise can generate a strange attractor with fractal dimension and a positive Lyapunov exponent. We unveil the deep connection with shear-induced chaos that was recently developed in the mathematical community.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Localization of information driven by stochastic resetting

The dynamics of extended many-body systems are generically chaotic. Classically, a hallmark of chaos is the exponential sensitivity to initial conditions captured by positive Lyapunov exponents. Supplementing chaotic dynamics with stochastic resetting drives a sharp dynamical phase transition: We show that the Lyapunov spectrum, i.e., the complete set of Lyapunov exponents, abruptly collapses to zero above a critical resetting rate. At criticality, we find a sudden loss of analyticity of the velocity-dependent Lyapunov exponent, which we relate to the transition from ballistic scrambling of information to an arrested regime where information becomes exponentially localized over a characteristic length diverging at criticality with an exponent $ν= 1/2$ and a dynamical exponent $z=2$. We illustrate our analytical results on generic chaotic dynamics by numerical simulations of coupled map lattices.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2026

Control of spatiotemporal chaos by stochastic resetting

We study how spatiotemporal chaos in dynamical systems can be controlled by stochastically returning them to their initial conditions. Focusing on discrete nonlinear maps, we analyze how key measures of chaos -- the Lyapunov exponent and butterfly velocity, which quantify sensitivity to initial perturbations and the ballistic spread of information, respectively -- are reduced by stochastic resetting. We identify a critical resetting rate that induces a dynamical phase transition, characterized by the simultaneous vanishing of the Lyapunov exponent and butterfly velocity, effectively arresting the spread of information. These theoretical predictions are validated and illustrated with numerical simulations of the celebrated logistic map and its lattice extension. Beyond discrete maps, our findings are applicable to virtually any chaotic extended classical many-body system.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2025

Chaotic and quantum dynamics in driven-dissipative bosonic chains

Thermalization in quantum many-body systems typically unfolds over timescales governed by intrinsic relaxation mechanisms. Yet, its spatial aspect is less understood. We investigate this phenomenon in the nonequilibrium steady state (NESS) of a Bose-Hubbard chain subject to coherent driving and dissipation at its boundaries, a setup inspired by current designs in circuit quantum electrodynamics. The dynamical fingerprints of chaos in this NESS are probed using semiclassical out-of-time-order correlators (OTOCs) within the truncated Wigner approximation (TWA). At intermediate drive strengths, we uncover a two-stage thermalization along the spatial dimension: phase coherence is rapidly lost near the drive, while amplitude relaxation occurs over much longer distances. This separation of scales gives rise to an extended hydrodynamic regime exhibiting anomalous temperature profiles, which we designate as a ``prethermal'' domain. At stronger drives, the system enters a nonthermal, non-chaotic finite-momentum condensate characterized by sub-Poissonian photon statistics and a spatially modulated phase profile, whose stability is undermined by quantum fluctuations. We explore the conditions underlying this protracted thermalization in space and argue that similar mechanisms are likely to emerge in a broad class of extended driven-dissipative systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Quantum jumps in driven-dissipative disordered many-body systems

We discuss how quantum jumps affect localized regimes in driven-dissipative disordered many-body systems featuring a localization transition. We introduce a deformation of the Lindblad master equation that interpolates between the standard Lindblad and the no-jump non-Hermitian dynamics of open quantum systems. As a platform, we use a disordered chain of hard-core bosons with nearest-neighbor interactions and subject to incoherent drive and dissipation at alternate sites. We probe both the statistics of complex eigenvalues of the deformed Liouvillian and dynamical observables of physical relevance. We show that reducing the number of quantum jumps, achievable through realistic postselection protocols, can promote the emergence of the localized phase. Our findings are based on exact diagonalization and time-dependent matrix-product states techniques.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Kinetics of information scrambling in correlated electrons: disorder-driven transition from shock-wave to FKPP dynamics

Quenched disorder slows down the scrambling of quantum information. Using a bottom-up approach, we formulate a kinetic theory of scrambling in a correlated metal near a superconducting transition, following the scrambling dynamics as the impurity scattering rate is increased. Within this framework, we rigorously show that the butterfly velocity $v$ is bounded by the light cone velocity $v_{\rm lc }$ set by the Fermi velocity. We analytically identify a disorder-driven dynamical transition occurring at small but finite disorder strength between a spreading of information characterized at late times by a discontinuous shock wave propagating at the maximum velocity $v_{\rm lc}$, and a smooth traveling wave belonging to the Fisher or Kolmogorov-Petrovsky-Piskunov (FKPP) class and propagating at a slower, if not considerably slower, velocity $v$. In the diffusive regime, we establish the relation $v^2/λ_{\rm FKPP} \sim D_{\rm el}$ where $λ_{\rm FKPP}$ is the Lyapunov exponent set by the inelastic scattering rate and $D_{\rm el}$ is the elastic diffusion constant.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2023

Transition to chaos in extended systems and their quantum impurity models

Chaos sets a fundamental limit to quantum-information processing schemes. We study the onset of chaos in spatially extended quantum many-body systems that are relevant to quantum optical devices. We consider an extended version of the Tavis-Cummings model on a finite chain. By studying level-spacing statistics, adjacent gap ratios, and spectral form factors, we observe the transition from integrability to chaos as the hopping between the Tavis-Cummings sites is increased above a finite value. The results are obtained by means of exact numerical diagonalization which becomes notoriously hard for extended lattice geometries. In an attempt to circumvent these difficulties, we identify a minimal single-site quantum impurity model that successfully captures the spectral properties of the lattice model. This approach is intended to be adaptable to other lattice models with large local Hilbert spaces.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Traveling discontinuity at the quantum butterfly front

We formulate a kinetic theory of quantum information scrambling in the context of a paradigmatic model of interacting electrons in the vicinity of a superconducting phase transition. We carefully derive a set of coupled partial differential equations that effectively govern the dynamics of information spreading in generic dimensions. Their solutions show that scrambling propagates at the maximal speed set by the Fermi velocity. At early times, we find exponential growth at a rate set by the inelastic scattering. At late times, we find that scrambling is governed by shock-wave dynamics with traveling waves exhibiting a discontinuity at the boundary of the light cone. Notably, we find perfectly causal dynamics where the solutions do not spill outside of the light cone.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2023

Correlated Insulator Collapse due to Quantum Avalanche via In-Gap Ladder States

We propose a microscopic mechanism to resolve the long-standing puzzle of the insulator-to-metal transition in correlated electronic systems, most notably charge-density-wave (CDW) materials and Mott insulators, driven far-from-equilibrium by a DC electric field. By introducing a generic model of electrons coupled to an inelastic medium of phonons, we demonstrate that an electron avalanche can occur in the bulk limit of such insulators at arbitrarily small electric field. The quantum avalanche arises by the generation of a ladder of in-gap states, created by a multi-phonon emission process. Hot-phonons in the avalanche trigger a premature and partial collapse of the correlated gap. The details of the phonon spectrum dictate two-stage versus single-stage mechanisms which we associate with CDW and Mott resistive transitions, respectively. The electron and phonon temperatures, as well as the temperature dependence of the threshold fields, point to the quantum nature of this nonequilibrium phase transition.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Electrically driven insulator-to-metal transition in a correlated insulator: Electronic mechanism and thermal description

Motivated by the resistive switchings in transition-metal oxides (TMOs) induced by a voltage bias, we study the far-from-equilibrium dynamics of an electric-field-driven strongly-correlated model featuring a first-order insulator-to-metal transition at equilibrium, namely the dimer-Hubbard model. We use a non-equilibrium implementation of the dynamical cluster approximation to access the steady-state spectral and transport properties. We show that the electric field can drive both metal-to-insulator and insulator-to-metal transitions. While they proceed by quite distinct mechanisms, specifically simple heating of the metal versus non-equilibrium effects in the correlated charge gap, we show that both of these non-equilibrium transitions can be unified in a single framework once the excitations are accounted for in terms of an effective temperature. This conceptual advance brings together the two sides of the long-lasting debate over the origins of the electrically-driven resistive switching in TMOs.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Dissipative quantum dynamics, phase transitions and non-Hermitian random matrices

We explore the connections between dissipative quantum phase transitions and non-Hermitian random matrix theory. For this, we work in the framework of the dissipative Dicke model which is archetypal of symmetry-breaking phase transitions in open quantum systems. We establish that the Liouvillian describing the quantum dynamics exhibits distinct spectral features of integrable and chaotic character on the two sides of the critical point. We follow the distribution of the spacings of the complex Liouvillian eigenvalues across the critical point. In the normal and superradiant phases, the distributions are $2D$ Poisson and that of the Ginibre Unitary random matrix ensemble, respectively. Our results are corroborated by computing a recently introduced complex-plane generalization of the consecutive level-spacing ratio distribution. Our approach can be readily adapted for classifying the nature of quantum dynamics across dissipative critical points in other open quantum systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Non-Analytic Non-Equilibrium Field Theory: Stochastic Reheating of the Ising Model

Many-body non-equilibrium steady states can be described by a Landau-Ginzburg theory if one allows non-analytic terms in the potential. We substantiate this claim by working out the case of the Ising magnet in contact with a thermal bath and undergoing stochastic reheating: It is reset to a paramagnet at random times. By a combination of stochastic field theory and Monte Carlo simulations, we unveil how the usual $φ^4$ potential is deformed by non-analytic operators of intrinsic non-equilibrium nature. We demonstrate their infrared relevance at low temperatures by a renormalization-group analysis of the non-equilibrium steady state. The equilibrium ferromagnetic fixed point is thus destabilized by stochastic reheating, and we identify the new non-equilibrium fixed point.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

Landau Theory for Non-Equilibrium Steady States

We examine how systems in non-equilibrium steady states close to a continuous phase transition can still be described by a Landau potential if one forgoes the assumption of analyticity. In a system simultaneously coupled to several baths at different temperatures, the non-analytic potential arises from the different density of states of the baths. In periodically driven-dissipative systems, the role of multiple baths is played by a single bath transferring energy at different harmonics of the driving frequency. The mean-field critical exponents become dependent on the low-energy features of the two most singular baths. We propose an extension beyond mean field.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2019

Stabilizing arrays of photonic cat states via spontaneous symmetry breaking

The controlled generation and the protection of entanglement is key to quantum simulation and quantum computation. At the single-mode level, protocols based on photonic cat states hold strong promise as they present unprecedentedly long-lived coherence and may be combined with powerful error correction schemes. Here, we demonstrate that robust ensembles of "many-body photonic cat states" can be generated in a Bose-Hubbard model with pair hopping via a spontaneous U(1) symmetry breaking mechanism. We identify a parameter region where the ground state is a massively degenerate manifold consisting of local cat states which are factorized throughout the lattice and whose conserved individual parities can be used to make a register of qubits. This phenomenology occurs for arbitrary system sizes or geometries, as soon as long-range order is established, and it extends to driven-dissipative conditions. In the thermodynamic limit, it is related to a Mott insulator to pair-superfluid phase transition.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Nonequilibrium Mean-Field Theory of Resistive Phase Transitions

We investigate the quantum mechanical origin of resistive phase transitions in solids driven by a constant electric field in the vicinity of a metal-insulator transition. We perform a nonequilibrium mean-field analysis of a driven-dissipative anti-ferromagnet, which we solve analytically for the most part. We find that the insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) and the metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) proceed by two distinct electronic mechanisms: Landau-Zener processes, and the destabilization of metallic state by Joule heating, respectively. However, we show that both regimes can be unified in a common effective thermal description, where the effective temperature $T_{\rm eff}$ depends on the state of the system. This explains recent experimental measurements in which the hot-electron temperature at the IMT was found to match the equilibrium transition temperature. Our analytic approach enables us to formulate testable predictions on the non-analytic behavior of $I$-$V$ relation near the insulator-to-metal transition. Building on these successes, we propose an effective Ginzburg-Landau theory which paves the way to incorporating spatial fluctuations, and to bringing the theory closer to a realistic description of the resistive switchings in correlated materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

(Non) equilibrium dynamics: a (broken) symmetry of the Keldysh generating functional

We unveil the universal (model-independent) symmetry satisfied by Schwinger-Keldysh quantum field theories whenever they describe equilibrium dynamics. This is made possible by a generalization of the Schwinger-Keldysh path-integral formalism in which the physical time can be re-parametrized to arbitrary contours in the complex plane. Strong relations between correlation functions, such as the fluctuation-dissipation theorems, are derived as immediate consequences of this symmetry of equilibrium. In this view, quantum non-equilibrium dynamics -- e.g. when driving with a time-dependent potential -- are seen as symmetry-breaking processes. The symmetry-breaking terms of the action are identified as a measure of irreversibility, or entropy creation, defined at the level of a single quantum trajectory. Moreover, they are shown to obey quantum fluctuation theorems. These results extend stochastic thermodynamics to the quantum realm.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2017

Permanent spin currents in cavity-qubit systems

In a recent remarkable experiment [P. Roushan et al., Nature Physics 13, 146 (2017)], a spin current in an architecture of three superconducting qubits was produced during a few microseconds by creating synthetic magnetic fields. The life-time of the current was set by the typical dissipative mechanisms that occur in those systems. We propose a scheme for the generation of permanent currents, even in the presence of such imperfections, and scalable to larger system sizes. It relies on striking a subtle balance between multiple nonequilibrium drives and the dissipation mechanisms, in order to engineer and stimulate chiral excited states which can carry current.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Microscopic Theory of Resistive Switching in Ordered Insulators: Electronic vs. Thermal Mechanism

We investigate the dramatic switch of resistance in ordered correlated insulators, when driven out of equilibrium by a strong voltage bias. Microscopic calculations on a driven-dissipative lattice of interacting electrons explain the main experimental features of resistive switching (RS), such as the hysteretic $I$-$V$ curves and the formation of hot conductive filaments. The energy-resolved electron distribution at the RS reveals the underlying nonequilibrium electronic mechanism, namely Landau-Zener tunneling, and also justifies a thermal description where the hot-electron temperature, estimated from the first moment of the distribution, matches the equilibrium phase transition temperature. We discuss the tangled relationship between filament growth and negative differential resistance, and the influence of crystallographic structure and disorder in the RS.

cond-mat.str-el↗