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Title: Scrambling and thermalization in a diffusive quantum many-body system

Journal Article · · New Journal of Physics
 [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Technical Univ. of Munich, Garching (Germany); Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
  2. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
  3. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  4. Technical Univ. of Munich, Garching (Germany)

Out-of-time ordered (OTO) correlation functions describe scrambling of information in correlated quantum matter. They are of particular interest in incoherent quantum systems lacking well defined quasi-particles. Thus far, it is largely elusive how OTO correlators spread in incoherent systems with diffusive transport governed by a few globally conserved quantities. Here, we study the dynamical response of such a system using high-performance matrix-product-operator techniques. Specifically, we consider the non-integrable, one-dimensional Bose–Hubbard model in the incoherent high-temperature regime. Our system exhibits diffusive dynamics in time-ordered correlators of globally conserved quantities, whereas OTO correlators display a ballistic, light-cone spreading of quantum information. The slowest process in the global thermalization of the system is thus diffusive, yet information spreading is not inhibited by such slow dynamics. We furthermore develop an experimentally feasible protocol to overcome some challenges faced by existing proposals and to probe time-ordered and OTO correlation functions. As a result, our study opens new avenues for both the theoretical and experimental exploration of thermalization and information scrambling dynamics.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; KN 1254/1-1; 291763
OSTI ID:
1369417
Journal Information:
New Journal of Physics, Vol. 19, Issue 6; ISSN 1367-2630
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 167 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (32)

Out‐of‐Time‐Order Correlators and Quantum Phase Transitions in the Rabi and Dicke Models journal April 2020
The Lyapunov spectra of quantum thermalisation journal June 2019
Accessing scrambling using matrix product operators journal November 2019
Entropic uncertainty relations for quantum information scrambling journal August 2019
Estimating ergodization time of a chaotic many-particle system from a time reversal of equilibrium noise journal December 2018
Scrambling in the Dicke model journal April 2019
Chaos and the dynamics of information in dissipative electronic systems journal September 2019
Entanglement growth after inhomogenous quenches journal September 2019
Tripartite information, scrambling, and the role of Hilbert space partitioning in quantum lattice models journal December 2019
Nonlocal emergent hydrodynamics in a long-range quantum spin system journal January 2020
Gauging classical and quantum integrability through out-of-time-ordered correlators journal October 2019
Quasiexact Kondo Dynamics of Fermionic Alkaline-Earth-Like Atoms at Finite Temperatures journal October 2019
Recent Developments in the Holographic Description of Quantum Chaos journal March 2019
Out of time ordered effective dynamics of a quartic oscillator journal January 2019
Reversible quantum information spreading in many-body systems near criticality text January 2018
Many-Body Quantum Interference and the Saturation of Out-of-Time-Order Correlators text January 2018
Reversible Quantum Information Spreading in Many-Body Systems near Criticality text January 2019
Many-Body Quantum Interference and the Saturation of Out-of-Time-Order Correlators text January 2018
Thermal diffusivity and chaos in metals without quasiparticles text January 2017
Operator Spreading in Random Unitary Circuits text January 2017
Detecting equilibrium and dynamical quantum phase transitions in Ising chains via out-of-time-ordered correlators text January 2018
Emergent statistical mechanics of entanglement in random unitary circuits text January 2018
Emergent locality in systems with power-law interactions text January 2018
Entropic uncertainty relations for quantum information scrambling text January 2018
Chaos signatures in the short and long time behavior of the out-of-time ordered correlator text January 2018
The Lyapunov Spectrum of Quantum Thermalisation text January 2018
Scrambling in the Dicke model text January 2018
Quantum Scrambling and State Dependence of the Butterfly Velocity text January 2018
Detection of quantum phases via out-of-time-order correlators text January 2019
Ergodicity-breaking arising from Hilbert space fragmentation in dipole-conserving Hamiltonians text January 2019
Quasiexact Kondo Dynamics of Fermionic Alkaline-Earth-Like Atoms at Finite Temperatures text January 2019
Entanglement growth after inhomogenous quenches text January 2019

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