Complexity growth in integrable and chaotic models

Journal Article · 04 July 2021 · Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep07(2021)011 · OSTI ID:1851821

Balasubramanian, Vijay ^[1]; DeCross, Matthew ^[2]; Kar, Arjun ^[3]; Li, Yue ^[2]; Parrikar, Onkar ^[4]

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1. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States); Vrije Univ., Brussels (Belgium); Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)
2. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)
3. Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada)
4. Stanford Univ., CA (United States)

We use the SYK family of models with N Majorana fermions to study the complexity of time evolution, formulated as the shortest geodesic length on the unitary group manifold between the identity and the time evolution operator, in free, integrable, and chaotic systems. Initially, the shortest geodesic follows the time evolution trajectory, and hence complexity grows linearly in time. We study how this linear growth is eventually truncated by the appearance and accumulation of conjugate points, which signal the presence of shorter geodesics intersecting the time evolution trajectory. By explicitly locating such “shortcuts” through analytical and numerical methods, we demonstrate that: (a) in the free theory, time evolution encounters conjugate points at a polynomial time; consequently complexity growth truncates at O($$\sqrt{N}$$), and we find an explicit operator which “fast-forwards” the free N-fermion time evolution with this complexity, (b) in a class of interacting integrable theories, the complexity is upper bounded by O(poly(N)), and (c) in chaotic theories, we argue that conjugate points do not occur until exponential times O(e^N), after which it becomes possible to find infinitesimally nearby geodesics which approximate the time evolution operator. Finally, we explore the notion of eigenstate complexity in free, integrable, and chaotic models.

• Research Organization: Stanford Univ., CA (United States); Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: National Science Foundation (NSF); Simons Foundation; USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0013528; SC0020360
• OSTI ID: 1851821
• Journal Information: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online), Journal Name: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online) Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 2021; ISSN 1029-8479
• Publisher: Springer NatureCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English