arXiv subjects

Silvia Pappalardi

Publications and source records attributed to Silvia Pappalardi.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Page Curve for Local-Operator Entanglement from Free Probability

The local-operator entanglement (LOE) measures the classical simulability of a Heisenberg operator and is conjectured to witness many-body chaos in locally interacting systems. Using tools from free probability, we analytically compute its asymptotic value for Haar random dynamics for all Rényi indices. We find that to the first two orders in large dimension, for traceless operators it exactly reproduces the Page curve for random states. In contrast to higher-order out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs), which depend on more complex operator correlations via free cumulants, the leading-order LOE is independent of the initial operator. \add{We detail exactly how these higher-order correlations are encoded in the coefficients of the finite-size corrections. Therefore, guided by our Haar result, we argue that the long-time value of the LOE entropies in chaotic systems is robust: they depend only on a simple sub-sector of the hierarchy of correlations encoded by the full Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis. Our results therefore provide a conceptual boundary between operator simulability and higher-order scrambling diagnostics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Refinements of the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis under Local Rotational Invariance via Free Probability

The Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH) was developed as a framework for understanding how the principles of statistical mechanics emerge in the long-time limit of isolated quantum many-body systems. Since then, ETH has shifted the attention towards the study of matrix elements of physical observables in the energy eigenbasis. In this work, we revisit recent developments leading to the formulation of full ETH, a generalization of the original ETH ansatz that accounts for multi-point correlation functions. Using tools from free probability, we explore the implications of local rotational invariance, a property that emerges from the statistical invariance of observables under random basis transformations induced by small perturbations of the Hamiltonian. This approach allows us to make quantitative predictions and derive an analytical characterization of subleading corrections to matrix-element correlations, thereby refining the ETH ansatz. Moreover, our analysis links the statistical properties of matrix elements under random basis changes to the empirical averages over energy windows that are usually considered when dealing with a single instance of the ensemble. We validate our analytical predictions through comparison with numerical simulations in non-integrable Floquet systems.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2026

Long-time Freeness in the Kicked Top

Recent work highlighted the importance of higher-order correlations in quantum dynamics for a deeper understanding of quantum chaos and thermalization. The full Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis, the framework encompassing correlations, can be formalized using the language of Free Probability theory. In this context, chaotic dynamics at long times are proposed to lead to free independence or "freeness" of observables. In this work, we investigate these issues in a paradigmatic semiclassical model - the kicked top - which exhibits a transition from integrability to chaos. Despite its simplicity, we identify several non-trivial features. By numerically studying 2n-point out-of-time-order correlators, we show that in the fully chaotic regime, long-time freeness is reached exponentially fast. These considerations lead us to introduce a large deviation theory for freeness that enables us to define and analyze the associated time scale. The numerical results confirm the existence of a hierarchy of different time scales, indicating a multifractal approach to freeness in this model. Our findings provide novel insights into the long-time behavior of chaotic dynamics and may have broader implications for the study of many-body quantum dynamics.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2026

Planckian dissipation from classical hydrodynamics

In this work we ask what the self-consistency of a classical hydrodynamic description imposes on a quantum system. The quantum fluctuation-dissipation theorem, when read in the time domain, acts as a blurring of the fine details of the correlation functions on a Plankian time-scale. We track this blurring along rays inside the light cone for three phenomenological hydrodynamic equations -- diffusion, telegraph and diffusive-telegraph -- and find that the interior of the cone splits into a classical region, where correlation and response satisfy the classical fluctuation-dissipation relation, and a quantum region, where they deviate sharply from it. Preserving a finite classical region as the temperature is lowered forces the effective relaxation rate to be at least Planckian, recovering bounds on diffusivity, equilibration time and shear viscosity. In this way, Planckian scaling of the diffusion constant emerges not as a quantum constraint on microscopic dynamics, but as the price a system pays to remain describable by classical hydrodynamics down to low temperatures.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2026

Quantum Mpemba effect in chaotic systems with conservation laws

Closed chaotic quantum systems relax after a quench into a Gibbs ensemble. At late times, the relaxation speed is determined by their conservation laws and hydrodynamics. As a result, there exist pairs of initial states which thermalize to the same ensemble, yet exhibit drastically different hydrodynamic relaxation. We show in two chaotic spin chains how this enables a simple and robust realization of the quantum Mpemba effect: a system initially closer to equilibrium relaxes slower than one that starts farther away, despite both approaching the same final state.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Assembling Extensive Quantum Fisher Information in Stabilizer Systems

We introduce a systematic framework to construct nonlocal observables with extensive quantum Fisher information (QFI) density in stabilizer codes. The construction maps stabilizer generators to dual Ising spins whose correlators equal string order parameters, converting hidden nonlocal order into a metrologically accessible observable. Applying this to monitored cluster codes and the toric code, we identify transitions in the QFI scaling from an extensive regime, where long-range string order prevails, to an intensive one driven by competing single-site measurements.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis correlations via non-linear Hydrodynamics

The thermalizing dynamics of many-body systems is often described through the lens of the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH). ETH postulates that the statistical properties of observables, when expressed in the energy eigenbasis, are described by smooth functions, that also describe correlations among the matrix elements. However, the form of these functions is usually left undetermined, constituting a key missing component of the ETH framework. In this work, we investigate the structure of such smooth functions by focusing on their Fourier transform, recently identified as free cumulants. Using non-linear hydrodynamics, we provide a prediction for the universal scaling of the late-time behavior of time-ordered free cumulants in the thermodynamic limit. The prediction is further corroborated by large-scale numerical simulations of several non-integrable one-dimensional spin models which exhibit diffusive transport behavior. Good agreement is observed in both infinite and finite-temperature regimes and for a collection of local observables. Our results indicate that the smooth multi-point correlation functions within the ETH framework admit a universal hydrodynamic description at low frequencies.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2026

Theory of Out-of-Time-Ordered Transport

We construct an effective field theory (EFT) that captures the universal behavior of out-of-time-order correlators (OTOCs) at late times in generic quantum many-body systems with conservation laws. The EFT hinges on a generalization of the strong-to-weak spontaneous symmetry breaking pattern adapted to out-of-time-order observables, and reduces to conventional fluctuating hydrodynamics when time-ordered observables are probed. We use the EFT to explain different power-law behavior observed in OTOCs at late times, and show that many OTOCs are entirely fixed by conventional transport data. Nevertheless, we show that a specific combination of OTOCs is sensitive to novel transport parameters, not visible in regular time-ordered correlators. We test our predictions in Hamiltonian and Floquet spin chains in one dimension.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Statistics of the Random Matrix Spectral Form Factor

The spectral form factor of random matrix theory plays a key role in the description of disordered and chaotic quantum systems. While its moments are known to be approximately Gaussian, corrections subleading in the matrix dimension, $D$, have recently come to attention, with conflicting results in the literature. In this work, we investigate these departures from Gaussianity for both circular and Gaussian ensembles. Using two independent approaches -- sine-kernel techniques and supersymmetric field theory -- we identify the form factor statistics to next leading order in a $D^{-1}$ expansion. Our sine-kernel analysis highlights inconsistencies with previous studies, while the supersymmetric approach backs these findings and suggests an understanding of the statistics from a complementary perspective. Our findings fully agree with numerics. They are presented in a pedagogical way, highlighting new pathways (and pitfalls) in the study of statistical signatures at next leading order, which are increasingly becoming important in applications.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Free Independence and Unitary Design from Random Matrix Product Unitaries

Unitary randomness underpins both fundamental tasks in quantum information and the modern theory of quantum chaos. On one side, a central concept is that of approximate unitary designs: circuits that look random according to small moments and for forward-in-time protocols. In a distinct setting, out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs), intensely studied as a measure of information scrambling, have recently been shown to probe freeness between Heisenberg operators, the noncommutative generalization of statistical independence. Bridging these two concepts, we study the emergence of freeness in a random matrix product unitary ensemble. We prove that, with only polynomial bond dimension, these unitaries reproduce Haar values of higher-order OTOCs for local, finite-trace observables, while traceless observables instead require exponential resources. Indeed, local observables are precisely those predicted to thermalize in chaotic many-body systems according to the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. Moreover, adding to previous literature, we show how random matrix product unitaries constitute approximate designs: we exactly compute the frame potential of the ensemble, showing convergence to the Haar value with polynomial deviations and so indicating that global observables are freely independent on-average. Our results highlight the need to refine previous notions of unitary design in the context of operator dynamics, guiding us towards protocols for quantum advantage and shedding light on the emergent complexity of chaotic many-body systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Thermalization and hydrodynamic long-time tails in a Floquet system

We systematically investigate whether classical hydrodynamic field theories can predict the long-time dynamics of many-particle quantum systems. We study both numerically and analytically the time evolution of a chain of spins (or qubits) subjected to stroboscopic dynamics. The time evolution is implemented by a sequence of local and nearest-neighbor gates that conserve the total magnetization. The long-time dynamics of such a system is believed to be describable by a hydrodynamic field theory, which, importantly, includes the effect of noise. Based on a field theoretical analysis and symmetry arguments, we map each operator in the spin model to the corresponding fields in hydrodynamics. This allows us to predict which expectation values decay exponentially and which decay with a hydrodynamic long-time tail. We illustrate these findings by studying the time evolution of all 255 Hermitian operators that can be defined on four neighboring sites. All operators not protected by hydrodynamics decay exponentially, while the others show a slow hydrodynamic decay. While most hydrodynamic power laws seem to follow the analytical predictions, we also discuss cases where there is an apparent discrepancy between analytics and the finite-size numerical data.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Random matrix universality in dynamical correlation functions at late times

We study the behavior of two-time correlation functions at late times for finite system sizes considering observables whose (one-point) average value does not depend on energy. In the long time limit, we show that such correlation functions display a ramp and a plateau determined by the correlations of energy levels, similar to what is already known for the spectral form factor. The plateau value is determined, in absence of degenerate energy levels, by the fluctuations of diagonal matrix elements, which highlights differences between different symmetry classes. We show this behavior analytically by employing results from Random Matrix Theory and the Eigenstate Thermalisation Hypothesis, and numerically by exact diagonalization in the toy example of a Hamiltonian drawn from a Random Matrix ensemble and in a more realistic example of disordered spin glasses at high temperature. Importantly, correlation functions in the ramp regime do not show self-averaging behaviour, and, at difference with the spectral form factor the time average does not coincide with the ensemble average.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2025

Towards scalable active steering protocols for genuinely entangled state manifolds

We introduce and analyze an active steering protocol designed to target multipartite entangled states. The protocol involves multiple qubits subjected to weak Bell pair measurements with active feedback, where the feedback operations are optimized to maximize the Quantum Fisher Information. Our scheme efficiently reaches a genuinely entangled one-parameter state manifold. Numerical simulations for systems with up to 22 qubits suggest that the protocol is scalable and allows high multipartite entanglement across the system.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Out-of-equilibrium Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis

Understanding how out-of-equilibrium states thermalize under quantum unitary dynamics is an important problem in many-body physics. In this work, we propose a statistical ansatz for the matrix elements of non-equilibrium initial states in the energy eigenbasis, in order to describe such evolution. The approach is inspired by the Eigenstate Thermalisation Hypothesis (ETH) but the proposed ansatz exhibits different scaling. Importantly, we point out the exponentially small cross-correlations between the observable and the initial state matrix elements that determine relaxation dynamics toward equilibrium. We numerically verify scaling and cross-correlation, point out the emergent universality of the high-frequency behavior, and outline possible generalizations.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2024

Multipartite entanglement structure of monitored quantum circuits

Monitored quantum circuits have attracted significant interest as an example of synthetic quantum matter, intrinsically defined by their quantum information content. Here, we propose a multipartite entanglement perspective on monitored phases through the lens of quantum Fisher information. Our findings reveal that unstructured monitored random circuits fail to exhibit divergent multipartite entanglement even at criticality, highlighting their departure from standard quantum critical behavior. However, we demonstrate that genuinely multipartite entangled phases can be realized through two-site measurements, provided a protection mechanism is in place. This work positions multipartite entanglement as a valuable perspective for the study of interacting monitored circuits and broader frameworks of noisy quantum dynamics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Theory of robust quantum many-body scars in long-range interacting systems

Quantum many-body scars (QMBS) are exceptional energy eigenstates of quantum many-body systems associated with violations of thermalization for special non-equilibrium initial states. Their various systematic constructions require fine-tuning of local Hamiltonian parameters. In this work we demonstrate that long-range interacting quantum spin systems generically host robust QMBS. We analyze spectral properties upon raising the power-law decay exponent $α$ of spin-spin interactions from the solvable permutationally-symmetric limit $α=0$. First, we numerically establish that despite spectral signatures of chaos appear for infinitesimal $α$, the towers of $α=0$ energy eigenstates with large collective spin are smoothly deformed as $α$ is increased, and exhibit characteristic QMBS features. To elucidate the nature and fate of these states in larger systems, we introduce an analytical approach based on mapping the spin Hamiltonian onto a relativistic quantum rotor non-linearly coupled to an extensive set of bosonic modes. We analitycally solve for the eigenstates of this interacting impurity model by means of a novel polaron-type canonical transformation, and show their self-consistent localization in large-spin sectors of the original Hamiltonian for $0<α<d$ (with $d$ = spatial dimension of the lattice). Our theory unveils the stability mechanism of such QMBS for arbitrary system size and predicts instances of its breakdown, e.g. near dynamical critical points or in presence of semiclassical chaos, which we verify numerically in long-range quantum Ising chains. As a byproduct, we find a predictive criterion for presence or absence of heating under periodic driving for $0<α<d$, beyond existing Floquet-prethermalization theorems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Microcanonical Free Cumulants in lattice systems

Recently, the full version of the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH) has been systematized using Free Probability. In this paper, we present a detailed discussion of the Free Cumulants approach to many-body dynamics within the microcanonical ensemble. Differences between the later and canonical averages are known to manifest in the time-dependent fluctuations of extensive operators. Thus, the microcanonical ensemble is essential to extend the application of Free Probability to the broad class of extensive observables. We numerically demonstrate the validity of our approach in a non-integrable spin chain Hamiltonian for extensive observables at finite energy density. Our results confirm the full ETH properties, specifically the suppression of crossing contributions and the factorization of non-crossing ones, thus demonstrating that the microcanonical free cumulants encode ETH smooth correlations for both local and extensive observables.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2024

Full Eigenstate Thermalization via Free Cumulants in Quantum Lattice Systems

The Eigenstate-Thermalization-Hypothesis (ETH) has been established as the general framework to understand quantum statistical mechanics. Only recently has the attention been paid to so-called full ETH, which accounts for higher-order correlations among matrix elements, and that can be rationalized theoretically using the language of Free Probability. In this work, we perform the first numerical investigation of the full ETH in physical many-body systems with local interactions by testing the decomposition of higher-order correlators into thermal free cumulants for local operators. We perform exact diagonalization on two classes of local non-integrable (chaotic) quantum many-body systems: spin chain Hamiltonians and Floquet brickwork unitary circuits. We show that the dynamics of four-time correlation functions are encoded in fourth-order free cumulants, as predicted by ETH. Their dependence on frequency encodes the physical properties of local many-body systems and distinguishes them from structureless, rotationally invariant ensembles of random matrices.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗