Time-dependent Correlation Functions in Open Quadratic Fermionic Systems

We formulate and discuss explicit computation of dynamic correlation functions in open quadradic fermionic systems which are driven and dissipated by the Lindblad jump processes that are linear in canonical fermionic operators. Dynamic correlators are interpreted in terms of local quantum quench where the pre-quench state is the non-equilibrium steady state, i.e. a fixed point of the Liouvillian. As an example we study the XY spin 1/2 chain and the Kitaev Majorana chains with boundary Lindblad driving, whose dynamics exhibits asymmetric (skewed) light cone behaviour. We also numerically treat the two dimensional XY model and the XY spin chain with additional Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions. The latter exhibits a new non-equilibrium phase transition which can be understood in terms of bifurcations of the quasi-particle dispersion relation. Finally, considering in some detail the periodic Kitaev chain (fermionic ring) with dissipation at a single (arbitrary) site, we present analytical expressions for the first order corrections (in the strength of dissipation) to the spectrum and the non-equilibrium steady state (NESS) correlation functions.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figure

Exact Correlation Functions for Dual-Unitary Lattice Models in 1+1 Dimensions

We consider a class of quantum lattice models in $1+1$ dimensions represented as local quantum circuits that enjoy a particular "dual-unitarity" property. In essence, this property ensures that both the evolution "in time" and that "in space" are given in terms of unitary transfer matrices. We show that for this class of circuits, generically non-integrable, one can compute explicitly all dynamical correlations of local observables. Our result is exact, non-pertubative, and holds for any dimension $d$ of the local Hilbert space. In the minimal case of qubits ($d = 2$) we also present a classification of all dual-unitary circuits which allows us to single out a number of distinct classes for the behaviour of the dynamical correlations. We find "non-interacting" classes, where all correlations are preserved, the ergodic and mixing one, where all correlations decay, and, interestingly, also classes that are are both interacting and non-ergodic.Comment: 6+5 pages, no figures; v2 minor changes; v3 as appears in Phys. Rev. Let

Exact Spectral Form Factor in a Minimal Model of Many-Body Quantum Chaos

The most general and versatile defining feature of quantum chaotic systems is that they possess an energy spectrum with correlations universally described by random matrix theory (RMT). This feature can be exhibited by systems with a well defined classical limit as well as by systems with no classical correspondence, such as locally interacting spins or fermions. Despite great phenomenological success, a general mechanism explaining the emergence of RMT without reference to semiclassical concepts is still missing. Here we provide the example of a quantum many-body system with no semiclassical limit (no large parameter) where the emergence of RMT spectral correlations is proven exactly. Specifically, we consider a periodically driven Ising model and write the Fourier transform of spectral density's two-point function, the spectral form factor, in terms of a partition function of a two-dimensional classical Ising model featuring a space-time duality. We show that the self-dual cases provide a minimal model of many-body quantum chaos, where the spectral form factor is demonstrated to match RMT for all values of the integer time variable $t$ in the thermodynamic limit. In particular, we rigorously prove RMT form factor for odd $t$, while we formulate a precise conjecture for even $t$. The results imply ergodicity for any finite amount of disorder in the longitudinal field, rigorously excluding the possibility of many-body localization. Our method provides a novel route for obtaining exact nonperturbative results in non-integrable systems.Comment: 6 + 22 pages, 3 figures; v2: improved presentation of the proofs in the appendices; v3: as appears in Physical Review Letter

Entanglement spreading in a minimal model of maximal many-body quantum chaos

The spreading of entanglement in out-of-equilibrium quantum systems is currently at the centre of intense interdisciplinary research efforts involving communities with interests ranging from holography to quantum information. Here we provide a constructive and mathematically rigorous method to compute the entanglement dynamics in a class of "maximally chaotic", periodically driven, quantum spin chains. Specifically, we consider the so called "self-dual" kicked Ising chains initialised in a class of separable states and devise a method to compute exactly the time evolution of the entanglement entropies of finite blocks of spins in the thermodynamic limit. Remarkably, these exact results are obtained despite the models considered are maximally chaotic: their spectral correlations are described by the circular orthogonal ensemble of random matrices on all scales. Our results saturate the so called "minimal cut" bound and are in agreement with those found in the contexts of random unitary circuits with infinite-dimensional local Hilbert space and conformal field theory. In particular, they agree with the expectations from both the quasiparticle picture, which accounts for the entanglement spreading in integrable models, and the minimal membrane picture, recently proposed to describe the entanglement growth in generic systems. Based on a novel "duality-based" numerical method, we argue that our results describe the entanglement spreading from any product state at the leading order in time when the model is non-integrable.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures; v2 improved presentation; v3: 28 pages 11 figures, presentation improved, Section 7 rewritte

Many-body quantum chaos: 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.Comment: 10 pages in RevTex with 4 figures and a few diagrams; v3: version accepted by PR

Chapter Performance Analysis of Empirical Ionosphere Models by Comparison with CODE Vertical TEC Maps

Earth science

Performance Analysis of Empirical Ionosphere Models by Comparison with CODE Vertical TEC Maps

Earth science

Scrambling is Necessary but Not Sufficient for Chaos

We show that out-of-time-order correlators (OTOCs) constitute a probe for Local-Operator Entanglement (LOE). There is strong evidence that a volumetric growth of LOE is a faithful dynamical indicator of quantum chaos, while OTOC decay corresponds to operator scrambling, often conflated with chaos. We show that rapid OTOC decay is a necessary but not sufficient condition for linear (chaotic) growth of the LOE entropy. We analytically support our results through wide classes of local-circuit models of many-body dynamics, including both integrable and non-integrable dual-unitary circuits. We show sufficient conditions under which local dynamics leads to an equivalence of scrambling and chaos.Comment: 6+16 Pages. Comments welcom

Correlations in Perturbed Dual-Unitary Circuits: Efficient Path-Integral Formula

Interacting many-body systems with explicitly accessible spatio-temporal correlation functions are extremely rare, especially in the absence of integrability. Recently, we identified a remarkable class of such systems and termed them dual-unitary quantum circuits. These are brick-wall type local quantum circuits whose dynamics are unitary in both time and space. For these systems the spatio-temporal correlation functions are non-trivial only at the edge of the causal light cone and can be computed in terms of one-dimensional transfer matrices. Dual-unitarity, however, requires fine-tuning and the degree of generality of the observed dynamical features remained unclear. Here we address this question by introducing arbitrary perturbations of the local gates. Considering fixed perturbations, we prove that for a particular class of unperturbed elementary dual-unitary gates the correlation functions are still expressed in terms of one-dimensional transfer matrices. These matrices, however, are now contracted over generic paths connecting the origin to a fixed endpoint inside the causal light cone. The correlation function is given as a sum over all such paths. Our statement is rigorous in the "dilute limit", where only a small fraction of the gates is perturbed, and in the presence of random longitudinal fields, but we provide theoretical arguments and stringent numerical checks supporting its validity even in the clean case and when all gates are perturbed. As a byproduct, in the case of random longitudinal fields -- which turns out to be equivalent to certain classical Markov chains -- we find four types of non-dual-unitary(and non-integrable) interacting many-body systems where the correlation functions are exactly given by the path-sum formula.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables; v3: 32 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables; presentation improved, Section 3 rewritte