arXiv subjects

J. T. Chalker

Publications and source records attributed to J. T. Chalker.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Random quantum circuits, chaos and quantum thermalization

These notes accompany lectures given in June 2025 at the summer school \emph{Fundamental Problems in Statistical Physics XVI}. They offer a short introduction to random quantum circuits as simple models for generic many-body quantum systems. They give an outline of the motivation for introducing these models, starting from ideas of random matrix theory. They also provide a sketch of calculations of some of the quantities of most physical interest, based on an average over an ensemble of systems. These quantities give insights into operator spreading, entanglement dynamics and spectral correlations.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Chaotic many-body quantum dynamics, spectral correlations, and energy diffusion

We study chaotic many-body quantum dynamics in a minimal model with spatial structure and local interactions. It has a time-independent Hamiltonian, in contrast to quantum circuits and Brownian models, and is simple at the single-site level, in contrast to Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev chains. It is analytically tractable for large local Hilbert space dimension and weak intersite coupling. In this limit we show that energy dynamics is described by a classical master equation and is diffusive. We also show that the spectral form factor can be expressed exactly in terms of the solution to this master equation. For a two-site system we obtain closed-form expressions for both the two-point correlator of energy density and the spectral form factor, in essentially perfect agreement with numerical simulations. For an $L$-site system we show at late times how a linear ramp emerges in the spectral form factor, as universally expected from level repulsion in chaotic quantum systems. Conversely, at earlier times we identify two distinct mechanisms for an increase of the spectral form factor above its ramp value. One of these is associated with energy diffusion and is effective until the Thouless time, which varies as $L^2$. The other involves contributions like those that would appear if the system were composed of many uncoupled subsystems: they generate a large enhancement of the spectral form factor, and are suppressed on a timescale varying as $(\ln L)^2$. Besides being exact for the limit considered, we believe our approach provides the natural approximation even for small local Hilbert space dimension and strong intersite coupling. We present a numerical study of a spin-half chain, finding an early-time enhancement of the spectral form factor which is qualitatively similar to that in our solvable model.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Operator dynamics in Floquet many-body systems

We study operator dynamics in many-body quantum systems, focusing on generic features of systems that are ergodic, spatially extended, and lack conserved densities. Quantum circuits of various types provide simple models for such systems. We focus on Floquet quantum circuits, comparing their behaviour with what has been found previously for circuits that are random in time. Floquet circuits, which have discrete time-translation symmetry, represent an intermediate case between circuits that are random in time and lack any symmetry, and systems with a time-independent Hamiltonian and continuous time-translation invariance. By making this comparison, one of our aims is to identify signatures of time-translation symmetry in Floquet operator dynamics. To characterise behaviour we examine a variety of quantities in solvable models and numerically: operator autocorrelation functions; the partial spectral form factor; the out-of-time-order correlator (OTOC); and the paths in operator space that make the dominant contributions to the ensemble-averaged autocorrelation functions. Our most striking result is that ensemble-averaged autocorrelation functions show behaviour that is distinctively different in Floquet systems compared to systems in which successive time-steps are independent. Specifically, while average autocorrelation functions decay on a microscopic timescale for circuits that are random in time, in Floquet systems they have a late-time tail with a duration that grows parametrically with the size of the operator support. The existence of these tails provides a way to understand deviations of the spectral form factor from random matrix behaviour at times shorter than the Thouless time. In contrast to this feature in autocorrelation functions, we find no new aspects to the behaviour of OTOCs for Floquet models compared to random-in-time circuits.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2024

Eigenstate correlations, the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, and quantum information dynamics in chaotic many-body quantum systems

We consider the statistical properties of eigenstates of the time-evolution operator in chaotic many-body quantum systems. Our focus is on correlations between eigenstates that are specific to spatially extended systems and that characterise entanglement dynamics and operator spreading. In order to isolate these aspects of dynamics from those arising as a result of local conservation laws, we consider Floquet systems in which there are no conserved densities. The correlations associated with scrambling of quantum information lie outside the standard framework established by the eigenstate thermalisation hypothesis (ETH). In particular, ETH provides a statistical description of matrix elements of local operators between pairs of eigenstates, whereas the aspects of dynamics we are concerned with arise from correlations amongst sets of four or more eigenstates. We establish the simplest correlation function that captures these correlations and discuss features of its behaviour that are expected to be universal at long distances and low energies. We also propose a maximum-entropy Ansatz for the joint distribution of a small number $n$ of eigenstates. In the case $n = 2$ this Ansatz reproduces ETH. For $n = 4$ it captures both the growth with time of entanglement between subsystems, as characterised by the purity of the time-evolution operator, and also operator spreading, as characterised by the behaviour of the out-of-time-order correlator. We test these ideas by comparing results from Monte Carlo sampling of our Ansatz with exact diagonalisation studies of Floquet quantum circuits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Random-matrix models of monitored quantum circuits

We study the competition between Haar-random unitary dynamics and measurements for unstructured systems of qubits. For projective measurements, we derive various properties of the statistical ensemble of Kraus operators analytically, including the purification time and the distribution of Born probabilities. The latter generalizes the Porter-Thomas distribution for random unitary circuits to the monitored setting and is log-normal at long times. We also consider weak measurements that interpolate between identity quantum channels and projective measurements. In this setting, we derive an exactly solvable Fokker-Planck equation for the joint distribution of singular values of Kraus operators, analogous to the Dorokhov-Mello-Pereyra-Kumar (DMPK) equation modelling disordered quantum wires. We expect that the statistical properties of Kraus operators we have established for these simple systems will serve as a model for the entangling phase of monitored quantum systems more generally.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Local resonances and parametric level dynamics in the many-body localised phase

By varying the disorder realisation in the many-body localised (MBL) phase, we investigate the influence of resonances on spectral properties. The standard theory of the MBL phase is based on the existence of local integrals of motion (LIOM), and eigenstates of the time evolution operator can be described as LIOM configurations. We show that smooth variations of the disorder give rise to avoided level crossings, and we identify these with resonances between LIOM configurations. Through this parametric approach, we develop a theory for resonances in terms of standard properties of non-resonant LIOM. This framework describes resonances that are locally pairwise, and is appropriate in arbitrarily large systems deep within the MBL phase. We show that resonances are associated with large level curvatures on paths through the ensemble of disorder realisations, and we determine the curvature distribution. By considering the level repulsion associated with resonances we calculate the two-point correlator of the level density. We also find the distributions of matrix elements of local observables and discuss implications for low-frequency dynamics.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2021

Many-body delocalisation as symmetry breaking

We present a framework in which the transition between a many-body localised (MBL) phase and an ergodic one is symmetry breaking. We consider random Floquet spin chains, expressing their averaged spectral form factor (SFF) as a function of time in terms of a transfer matrix that acts in the space direction. The SFF is determined by the leading eigenvalues of this transfer matrix. In the MBL phase the leading eigenvalue is unique, as in a symmetry-unbroken phase, while in the ergodic phase and at late times the leading eigenvalues are asymptotically degenerate, as in a system with degenerate symmetry-breaking phases. We identify the broken symmetry of the transfer matrix, introduce a local order parameter for the transition, and show that the associated correlation functions are long-ranged only in the ergodic phase.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2021

Local pairing of Feynman histories in many-body Floquet models

We study many-body quantum dynamics using Floquet quantum circuits in one space dimension as simple examples of systems with local interactions that support ergodic phases. Physical properties can be expressed in terms of multiple sums over Feynman histories, which for these models are paths or many-body orbits in Fock space. A natural simplification of such sums is the diagonal approximation, where the only terms that are retained are ones in which each path is paired with a partner that carries the complex conjugate weight. We identify the regime in which the diagonal approximation holds, and the nature of the leading corrections to it. We focus on the behaviour of the spectral form factor (SFF) and of matrix elements of local operators, averaged over an ensemble of random circuits, making comparisons with the predictions of random matrix theory (RMT) and the eigenstate thermalisation hypothesis (ETH). We show that properties are dominated at long times by contributions to orbit sums in which each orbit is paired locally with a conjugate, as in the diagonal approximation, but that in large systems these contributions consist of many spatial domains, with distinct local pairings in neighbouring domains. The existence of these domains is reflected in deviations of the SFF from RMT predictions, and of matrix element correlations from ETH predictions; deviations of both kinds diverge with system size. We demonstrate that our physical picture of orbit-pairing domains has a precise correspondence in the spectral properties of a transfer matrix that acts in the space direction to generate the ensemble-averaged SFF. In addition, we find that domains of a second type control non-Gaussian fluctuations of the SFF. These domains are separated by walls which are related to the entanglement membrane, known to characterise the scrambling of quantum information.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

Spectral Lyapunov exponents in chaotic and localized many-body quantum systems

We consider the spectral statistics of the Floquet operator for disordered, periodically driven spin chains in their quantum chaotic and many-body localized phases (MBL). The spectral statistics are characterized by the traces of powers $t$ of the Floquet operator, and our approach hinges on the fact that, for integer $t$ in systems with local interactions, these traces can be re-expressed in terms of products of dual transfer matrices, each representing a spatial slice of the system. We focus on properties of the dual transfer matrix products as represented by a spectrum of Lyapunov exponents, which we call \textit{spectral Lyapunov exponents}. In particular, we examine the features of this spectrum that distinguish chaotic and MBL phases. The transfer matrices can be block-diagonalized using time-translation symmetry, and so the spectral Lyapunov exponents are classified according to a momentum in the time direction. For large $t$ we argue that the leading Lyapunov exponents in each momentum sector tend to zero in the chaotic phase, while they remain finite in the MBL phase. These conclusions are based on results from three complementary types of calculation. We find exact results for the chaotic phase by considering a Floquet random quantum circuit with on-site Hilbert space dimension $q$ in the large-$q$ limit. In the MBL phase, we show that the spectral Lyapunov exponents remain finite by systematically analyzing models of non-interacting systems, weakly coupled systems, and local integrals of motion. Numerically, we compute the Lyapunov exponents for a Floquet random quantum circuit and for the kicked Ising model in the two phases. As an additional result, we calculate exactly the higher point spectral form factors (hpSFF) in the large-$q$ limit, and show that the generalized Thouless time scales logarithmically in system size for all hpSFF in the large-$q$ chaotic phase.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

Emergent moments and random singlet physics in a Majorana spin liquid

We exhibit an exactly solvable example of a SU(2) symmetric Majorana spin liquid phase, in which quenched disorder leads to random-singlet phenomenology. More precisely, we argue that a strong-disorder fixed point controls the low temperature susceptibility $χ(T)$ of an exactly solvable $S=1/2$ model on the decorated honeycomb lattice with quenched bond disorder and/or vacancies, leading to $χ(T) = {\mathcal C}/T+ {\mathcal D} T^{α(T) - 1}$ where $α(T) \rightarrow 0$ as $T \rightarrow 0$. The first term is a Curie tail that represents the emergent response of vacancy-induced spin textures spread over many unit cells: it is an intrinsic feature of the site-diluted system, rather than an extraneous effect arising from isolated free spins. The second term, common to both vacancy and bond disorder (with different $α(T)$ in the two cases) is the response of a random singlet phase, familiar from random antiferromagnetic spin chains and the analogous regime in phosphorus-doped silicon (Si:P).

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Measurement-induced steering of quantum systems

We set out a general protocol for steering the state of a quantum system from an arbitrary initial state towards a chosen target state by coupling it to auxiliary quantum degrees of freedom. The protocol requires multiple repetitions of an elementary step: during each step the system evolves for a fixed time while coupled to auxiliary degrees of freedom (which we term 'detector qubits') that have been prepared in a specified initial state. The detectors are discarded at the end of the step, or equivalently, their state is determined by a projective measurement with an unbiased average over all outcomes. The steering harnesses back-action of the detector qubits on the system, arising from entanglement generated during the coupled evolution. We establish principles for the design of the system-detector coupling that ensure steering of a desired form. We illustrate our general ideas using both few-body examples (including a pair of spins-1/2 steered to the singlet state) and a many-body example (a spin-1 chain steered to the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki state). We study the continuous time limit in our approach and discuss similarities to (and differences from) drive-and-dissipation protocols for quantum state engineering. Our protocols are amenable to implementations using present-day technology. Obvious extensions of our analysis include engineering of other many-body phases in one and higher spatial dimensions, adiabatic manipulations of the target states, and the incorporation of active error correction steps.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

Quantum Hall network models as Floquet topological insulators

Network models for equilibrium integer quantum Hall (IQH) transitions are described by unitary scattering matrices, that can also be viewed as representing non-equilibrium Floquet systems. The resulting Floquet bands have zero Chern number, and are instead characterized by a chiral Floquet (CF) winding number. This begs the question: How can a model without Chern number describe IQH systems? We resolve this apparent paradox by showing that non-zero Chern number is recovered from the network model via the energy dependence of network model scattering parameters. This relationship shows that, despite their topologically distinct origins, IQH and CF topology-changing transitions share identical universal scaling properties.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2020

Goldstone modes in the emergent gauge fields of a frustrated magnet

We consider magnon excitations in the spin-glass phase of geometrically frustrated antiferromagnets with weak exchange disorder, focussing on the nearest-neighbour pyrochlore-lattice Heisenberg model at large spin. The low-energy degrees of freedom in this system are represented by three copies of a U(1) emergent gauge field, related by global spin-rotation symmetry. We show that the Goldstone modes associated with spin-glass order are excitations of these gauge fields, and that the standard theory of Goldstone modes in Heisenberg spin glasses (due to Halperin and Saslow) must be modified in this setting.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Spectral statistics and many-body quantum chaos with conserved charge

We investigate spectral statistics in spatially extended, chaotic many-body quantum systems with a conserved charge. We compute the spectral form factor $K(t)$ analytically for a minimal Floquet circuit model that has a $U(1)$ symmetry encoded via auxiliary spin-$1/2$ degrees of freedom. Averaging over an ensemble of realizations, we relate $K(t)$ to a partition function for the spins, given by a Trotterization of the spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg ferromagnet. Using Bethe Ansatz techniques, we extract the 'Thouless time' $t^{\vphantom{*}}_{\rm Th}$ demarcating the extent of random matrix behavior, and find scaling behavior governed by diffusion for $K(t)$ at $t\lesssim t^{\vphantom{*}}_{\rm Th}$. We also report numerical results for $K(t)$ in a generic Floquet spin model, which are consistent with these analytic predictions.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2019

Eigenstate Correlations, Thermalization and the Butterfly Effect

We discuss eigenstate correlations for ergodic, spatially extended many-body quantum systems, in terms of the statistical properties of matrix elements of local observables. While the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) is known to give an excellent description of these quantities, the butterfly effect implies structure beyond ETH. We determine the universal form of this structure at long distances and small eigenvalue separations for Floquet systems. We use numerical studies of a Floquet quantum circuit to illustrate both the accuracy of ETH and the existence of our predicted additional correlations.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2018

Percolation in Fock space as a proxy for many-body localisation

We study classical percolation models in Fock space as proxies for the quantum many-body localisation (MBL) transition. Percolation rules are defined for two models of disordered quantum spin-chains using their microscopic quantum Hamiltonians and the topologies of the associated Fock-space graphs. The percolation transition is revealed by the statistics of Fock-space cluster sizes, obtained by exact enumeration for finite-sized systems. As a function of disorder strength, the typical cluster size shows a transition from a volume law in Fock space to sub-volume law, directly analogous to the behaviour of eigenstate participation entropies across the MBL transition. Finite-size scaling analyses for several diagnostics of cluster size statistics yield mutually consistent critical properties. We show further that local observables averaged over Fock-space clusters also carry signatures of the transition, with their behaviour across it in direct analogy to that of corresponding eigenstate expectation values across the MBL transition. The Fock-space clusters can be explored under a mapping to kinetically constrained models. Dynamics within this framework likewise show the ergodicity-breaking transition via Monte Carlo averaged local observables, and yield critical properties consistent with those obtained from both exact cluster enumeration and analytic results derived in our recent work [arXiv:1812.05115]. This mapping allows access to system sizes two orders of magnitude larger than those accessible in exact enumerations. Simple physical pictures based on freezing of local real-space segments of spins are also presented, and shown to give values for the critical disorder strength and correlation length exponent $ν$ consistent with numerical studies.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2018

Exact solution of a percolation analogue for the many-body localisation transition

We construct and solve a classical percolation model with a phase transition that we argue acts as a proxy for the quantum many-body localisation transition. The classical model is defined on a graph in the Fock space of a disordered, interacting quantum spin chain, using a convenient choice of basis. Edges of the graph represent matrix elements of the spin Hamiltonian between pairs of basis states that are expected to hybridise strongly. At weak disorder, all nodes are connected, forming a single cluster. Many separate clusters appear above a critical disorder strength, each typically having a size that is exponentially large in the number of spins but a vanishing fraction of the Fock-space dimension. We formulate a transfer matrix approach that yields an exact value $ν=2$ for the localisation length exponent, and also use complete enumeration of clusters to study the transition numerically in finite-sized systems.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2018

Magnetic excitations of the classical spin liquid MgCr2O4

We report a comprehensive inelastic neutron-scattering study of the frustrated pyrochlore antiferromagnet MgCr2O4 in its cooperative paramagnetic regime. Theoretical modeling yields a microscopic Heisenberg model with exchange interactions up to third-nearest neighbors, which quantitatively explains all the details of the dynamic magnetic response. Our work demonstrates that the magnetic excitations in paramagnetic MgCr2O4 are faithfully represented in the entire Brillouin zone by a theory of magnons propagating in a highly-correlated paramagnetic background. Our results also suggest that MgCr2O4 is proximate to a spiral spin-liquid phase distinct from the Coulomb phase, which has implications for the magneto-structural phase transition in MgCr2O4 .

cond-mat.str-el↗