arXiv subjects

Jochen Gemmer

Publications and source records attributed to Jochen Gemmer.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Classicality, Markovianity and local detailed balance from pure state dynamics

When describing the effective dynamics of an observable in a many-body system, the repeated randomness assumption, which states that the system returns in a short time to a maximum entropy state, is a crucial hypothesis to guarantee that the effective dynamics is classical, Markovian and obeys local detailed balance. While the latter behaviour is frequently observed in naturally occurring processes, the repeated randomness assumption is in blatant contradiction to the microscopic reversibility of the system. Here, we show that the use of the repeated randomness assumption can be justified in the description of the effective dynamics of an observable that is both slow and coarse, two properties we will define rigorously. Then, our derivation will invoke essentially only the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis and typicality arguments. While the assumption of a slow observable is subtle, as it provides only a necessary but not sufficient condition, it also offers a unifying perspective applicable to, e.g., open systems as well as collective observables of many-body systems. All our ideas are numerically verified by studying density waves in spin chains.

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arXiv2022

Typical perturbation theory: conditions, accuracy and comparison with a mesoscopic case

The perturbation theory based on typicality introduced in Ref. [1] and further refined in Refs. [2, 3] provides a powerful tool since it is intended to be applicable to a wide range of scenarios while relying only on a few parameters. Even though the authors present various examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theory, the conditions used in its derivation are often not thoroughly checked. It is argued that this is justified (without analytical reasoning) by the robustness of the theory. In the paper at hand, said perturbation theory is tested on three spin-based models. The following criteria are taken into focus: the fulfillment of the conditions, the accuracy of the predicted dynamics and the relevance of the results with respect to a mesoscopic case.

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arXiv2022

Eigenstate thermalization hypothesis and its deviations from random-matrix theory beyond the thermalization time

The Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH) explains emergence of the thermodynamic equilibrium by assuming a particular structure of observable's matrix elements in the energy eigenbasis. Schematically, it postulates that off-diagonal matrix elements are random numbers and the observables can be described by Random Matrix Theory (RMT). To what extent physical operators can be described by RMT, more precisely at which energy scale strict RMT description applies, is however not fully understood. We study this issue by introducing a novel numerical approach to probe correlations between matrix elements for Hilbert-space dimensions beyond those accessible for exact diagonalization. Our analysis is based on the evaluation of higher moments of operator submatrices, defined within energy windows of varying width. Considering nonintegrable quantum spin chains, we observe that genuine RMT behavior is absent even for narrow energy windows corresponding to time scales of the order of thermalization time $τ_\text{th}$ of the respective observables. We also demonstrate that residual correlations between matrix elements are reflected in the dynamics of out-of-time-ordered correlation functions.

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arXiv2022

Stability of Exponentially Damped Oscillations under Perturbations of the Mori-Chain

There is an abundance of evidence that some relaxation dynamics, e.g., exponential decays, are much more common in nature than others. Recently, there have been attempts to trace this dominance back to a certain stability of the prevalent dynamics versus generic Hamiltonian perturbations. In the paper at hand, we tackle this stability issue from yet another angle, namely in the framework of the recursion method. We investigate the behavior of various relaxation dynamics with respect to alterations of the so-called Lanczos coefficients. All considered scenarios are set up in order to comply with the "universal operator growth hypothesis". Our numerical experiments suggest the existence of stability in a larger class of relaxation dynamics consisting of exponentially damped oscillations. Further, we propose a criterion to identify "pathological" perturbations that lead to uncommon dynamics.

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arXiv2022

Numerically Probing the Universal Operator Growth Hypothesis

Recently, a hypothesis on the complexity growth of unitarily evolving operators was presented. This hypothesis states that in generic, non-integrable many-body systems the so-called Lanczos coefficients associated with an autocorrelation function grow asymptotically linear, with a logarithmic correction in one-dimensional systems. In contrast, the growth is expected to be slower in integrable or free models. In the paper at hand, we numerically test this hypothesis for a variety of exemplary systems, including 1d and 2d Ising models as well as 1d Heisenberg models. While we find the hypothesis to be practically fulfilled for all considered Ising models, the onset of the hypothesized universal behavior could not be observed in the attainable numerical data for the Heisenberg model. The proposed linear bound on operator growth eventually stems from geometric arguments involving the locality of the Hamiltonian as well as the lattice configuration. We investigate such a geometric bound and find that it is not sharply achieved for any considered model.

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arXiv2021

Nontrivial damping of quantum many-body dynamics

Understanding how the dynamics of a given quantum system with many degrees of freedom is altered by the presence of a generic perturbation is a notoriously difficult question. Recent works predict that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the unperturbed dynamics is just damped by a simple function, e.g., exponentially as expected from Fermi's golden rule. While these predictions rely on random-matrix arguments and typicality, they can only be verified for a specific physical situation by comparing to the actual solution or measurement. Crucially, it also remains unclear how frequent and under which conditions counterexamples to the typical behavior occur. In this work, we discuss this question from the perspective of projection-operator techniques, where exponential damping of a density matrix occurs in the interaction picture but not necessarily in the Schrödinger picture. We show that a nontrivial damping in the Schrödinger picture can emerge if the dynamics in the unperturbed system possesses rich features, for instance due to the presence of strong interactions. This suggestion has consequences for the time dependence of correlation functions. We substantiate our theoretical arguments by large-scale numerical simulations of charge transport in the extended Fermi-Hubbard chain, where the nearest-neighbor interactions are treated as a perturbation to the integrable reference system.

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arXiv2021

Stochastic thermodynamics of a finite quantum system coupled to two heat baths

We consider a situation where an $N$-level system (NLS) is coupled successively to two heat baths with different temperatures without being necessarily thermalized and approaches a steady state. For this situation we apply a general Jarzinski-type equation and conclude that heat and entropy is flowing from the hot bath to the cold one. The Clausius relation between increase of entropy and transfer of heat divided by a suitable temperature assumes the form of two inequalities. Our approach is illustrated by an analytical example. For the linear regime, i.~e., for small temperature differences between the two heat baths we derive an expression for the heat conduction coefficient.

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arXiv2021

Stochastic thermodynamics of a finite quantum system coupled to a heat bath

We consider a situation where an $N$-level system (NLS) is coupled to a heat bath without being necessarily thermalized. For this situation we derive general Jarzinski-type equations and conclude that heat and entropy is flowing from the hot bath to the cold NLS and, vice versa, from the hot NLS to the cold bath. The Clausius relation between increase of entropy and transfer of heat divided by a suitable temperature assumes the form of two inequalities which have already been considered in the literature. Our approach is illustrated by an analytical example.

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arXiv2021

Integral Fluctuation Theorem for Microcanonical and Pure States

We present a derivation of the integral fluctuation theorem (IFT) for isolated quantum systems based on some natural assumptions on transition probabilities. Under these assumptions of "stiffness" and "smoothness" the IFT immediately follows for microcanonical and pure quantum states. We numerically check the IFT as well as the validity of our assumptions by analyzing two exemplary systems. We have been informed by T. Sagawa et al. that he and his co-workers found comparable numerical results and are preparing a corresponding paper, which should be available on the same day as the present text. We recommend reading their submission.

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arXiv2020

Eigenstate thermalization hypothesis beyond standard indicators: Emergence of random-matrix behavior at small frequencies

Using numerical exact diagonalization, we study matrix elements of a local spin operator in the eigenbasis of two different nonintegrable quantum spin chains. Our emphasis is on the question to what extent local operators can be represented as random matrices and, in particular, to what extent matrix elements can be considered as uncorrelated. As a main result, we show that the eigenvalue distribution of band submatrices at a fixed energy density is a sensitive probe of the correlations between matrix elements. We find that, on the scales where the matrix elements are in a good agreement with all standard indicators of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, the eigenvalue distribution still exhibits clear signatures of the original operator, implying correlations between matrix elements. Moreover, we demonstrate that at much smaller energy scales, the eigenvalue distribution approximately assumes the universal semicircle shape, indicating transition to the random-matrix behavior, and in particular that matrix elements become uncorrelated.

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arXiv2020

Stiffness of Probability Distributions of Work and Jarzynski Relation for Initial Microcanonical and Energy Eigenstates

We consider closed quantum systems (into which baths may be integrated) that are driven, i.e., subject to time-dependent Hamiltonians. As a starting point we assume that, for systems initialized in microcanonical states at some energies, the resulting probability densities of work (work-PDFs) are largely independent of these specific initial energies. We show analytically that this assumption of "stiffness", together with the assumption of an exponentially growing density of energy eigenstates, is sufficient but not necessary for the validity of the Jarzynski relation (JR) for the above microcanonical initial states. This holds, even in the absence of microreversibility. To scrutinize the connection between stiffness and the JR for microcanonical initial states, we perform numerical analysis on systems comprising random matrices which may be tuned from stiff to nonstiff. In these examples we find the JR fulfilled in the presence of stiffness, and violated in its absence, which indicates a very close connection between stiffness and the JR. Remarkably, in the limit of large systems, we find the JR fulfilled, even for pure initial energy eigenstates. As this has no analogue in classical systems, we consider it a genuine quantum phenomenon.

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arXiv2020

Exponential damping induced by random and realistic perturbations

Given a quantum many-body system and the expectation-value dynamics of some operator, we study how this reference dynamics is altered due to a perturbation of the system's Hamiltonian. Based on projection operator techniques, we unveil that if the perturbation exhibits a random-matrix structure in the eigenbasis of the unperturbed Hamiltonian, then this perturbation effectively leads to an exponential damping of the original dynamics. Employing a combination of dynamical quantum typicality and numerical linked cluster expansions, we demonstrate that our theoretical findings for random matrices can, in some cases, be relevant for the dynamics of realistic quantum many-body models as well. Specifically, we study the decay of current autocorrelation functions in spin-$1/2$ ladder systems, where the rungs of the ladder are treated as a perturbation to the otherwise uncoupled legs. We find a convincing agreement between the exact dynamics and the lowest-order prediction over a wide range of interchain couplings.

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arXiv2020

Why are macroscopic experiments reproducible? Imitating the behavior of an ensemble by single pure states

Evidently, physical experiments are practically reproducible even though the fully identical preparation of initial state wave functions is often far beyond experimental possibilities. It is thus natural to explore if and in which sense specific, uncontrollable features of initial wave functions are irrelevant for the observable course of an experiment. To this end we define ensembles of pure states which are then shown to generate extremely similar non-equilibrium dynamics of the expectation values of practically all standard observables. The ensembles are constructed to comply with some reduced, coarse a priori information on the state of the system, like, e.g. a few specific expectation values, etc. However, different types of ensembles with different additional properties are possible. We discuss some of them.

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arXiv2020

Modeling the Impact of Hamiltonian Perturbations on Expectation Value Dynamics

Evidently, some relaxation dynamics, e.g. exponential decays, are much more common in nature than others. Recently there have been attempts to explain this observation on the basis of ``typicality of perturbations'' with respect to their impact on expectation value dynamics. These theories suggest that a majority of the very numerous, possible Hamiltonian perturbations entail more or less the same type of alteration of the decay dynamics. Thus, in this paper, we study how the approach towards equilibrium in closed quantum systems is altered due to weak perturbations. To this end, we perform numerical experiments on a particular, exemplary spin system. We compare our numerical data to predictions from three particular theories. We find satisfying agreement in the weak perturbation regime for one of these approaches.

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arXiv2020

Modern Concepts of Quantum Equilibration Do Not Rule Out Strange Relaxation Dynamics

Numerous pivotal concepts have been introduced to clarify the puzzle of relaxation and/or equilibration in closed quantum systems. All of these concepts rely in some way on specific conditions on Hamiltonians $H$, observables $A$, and initial states $ρ$ or combinations thereof. We numerically demonstrate and analytically argue that there is a multitude of pairs $H,A$ that meet said conditions for equilibration and generate some "typical" expectation value dynamics which means, $\langle A(t)\rangle \propto f(t)$ approximately holds for the vast majority of all initial states. Remarkably we find that, while restrictions on the $f(t)$ exist, they do not at all exclude $f(t)$ that are rather adverse or "strange" regarding thermal relaxation.

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arXiv2020

Sequential measurements and entropy

We sketch applications of the so-called J-equation to quantum information theory concerning fundamental properties of the von Neumann entropy. The J-equation has recently be proposed as a sort of progenitor of the various versions of the Jarzynski equation. It has been derived within a general framework of sequential measurements that is slightly generalised here.

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arXiv2019

Compelling Bounds on Equilibration Times -- the Issue with Fermi's Golden Rule

Putting a general, physically relevant upper bound on equilibration times in closed quantum systems is a recently much pursued endeavor. In PRX, 7, 031027 (2017) Garc\'ıa-Pintos et al. suggest such a bound. We point out that the general assumptions which allow for an actual estimation of this bound are violated in cases in which Fermi's Golden Rule and related open quantum system theories apply. To probe the range of applicability of Fermi's Golden Rule for systems of the type addressed in the above work, we numerically solve the corresponding Schrödinger equation for some finite spin systems comprising up to 25 spins. These calculations shed light on the breakdown of standard quantum master equations in the "superweak" coupling limit, which occurs for finite sized baths.

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arXiv2019

Relaxation of dynamically prepared out-of-equilibrium initial states within and beyond linear response theory

We consider a realistic nonequilibrium protocol, where a quantum system in thermal equilibrium is suddenly subjected to an external force. Due to this force, the system is driven out of equilibrium and the expectation values of certain observables acquire a dependence on time. Eventually, upon switching off the external force, the system unitarily evolves under its own Hamiltonian and, as a consequence, the expectation values of observables equilibrate towards specific constant long-time values. Summarizing our main results, we show that, in systems which violate the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH), this long-time value exhibits an intriguing dependence on the strength of the external force. Specifically, for weak external forces, i.e., within the linear response regime, we show that expectation values thermalize to their original equilibrium values, despite the ETH being violated. In contrast, for stronger perturbations beyond linear response, the quantum system relaxes to some nonthermal value which depends on the previous nonequilibrium protocol. While we present theoretical arguments which underpin these results, we also numerically demonstrate our findings by studying the real-time dynamics of two low-dimensional quantum spin models.

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