Gapless spin-fluid ground state in a random quantum Heisenberg magnet

Quantum simulation of operator spreading in the chaotic Ising model

There is great interest in using near-term quantum computers to simulate and study foundational problems in quantum mechanics and quantum information science, such as the scrambling measured by an out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC). Here we use an IBM Q processor, quantum error mitigation, and weaved Trotter simulation to study high-resolution operator spreading in a four-spin Ising model as a function of space, time, and integrability. Reaching four spins while retaining high circuit fidelity is made possible by the use of a physically motivated fixed-node variant of the OTOC, allowing scrambling to be estimated without overhead. We find clear signatures of a ballistic operator spreading in a chaotic regime, as well as operator localization in an integrable regime. The techniques developed and demonstrated here open up the possibility of using cloud-based quantum computers to study and visualize scrambling phenomena, as well as quantum information dynamics more generally.

Dissipation-Induced Information Scrambling in a Collision Model

In this paper, we present a collision model to stroboscopically simulate the dynamics of information in dissipative systems. In particular, an all-optical scheme is proposed to investigate the information scrambling of bosonic systems with Gaussian environmental states. Varying the states of environments, in the presence of dissipation, transient tripartite mutual information of system modes may show negative value, signaling the appearance of information scrambling. We also find that dynamical indivisibility based non-Markovianity plays dual roles in affecting the dynamics of information.

Dominance of Replica Off-Diagonal Configurations and Phase Transitions in a PT Symmetric Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Model

We show that, after ensemble averaging, the low temperature phase of a conjugate pair of uncoupled, quantum chaotic, non-Hermitian systems such as the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model or the Ginibre ensemble of random matrices is dominated by saddle points that couple replicas and conjugate replicas. This results in a nearly flat free energy that terminates in a first-order phase transition. In the case of the SYK model, we show explicitly that the spectrum of the effective replica theory has a gap. These features are strikingly similar to those induced by wormholes in the gravity path integral which suggests a close relation between both configurations. For a nonchaotic SYK, the results are qualitatively different: the spectrum is gapless in the low temperature phase and there is an infinite number of second order phase transitions unrelated to the restoration of replica symmetry.

Exciton and fermion-pair condensation at non-zero temperature

A thermodynamic study of a many-particle two-level system with theSU(2) ⊗SU(2)-symmetry interaction in the particle-particle and particle-hole channels is carried out. Using the symmetry of the system, its free energy and phase diagram are calculated. It is demonstrated that the superconducting (particle-particle) and excitonic (particle-hole) condensates are both formed in the considered system which undergoes two phase transitions. The calculated phase diagram represents qualitatively the phase diagram typical for materials with the high-temperature superconducting properties, including the existence of two phase transitions, the first and second order phase transitions, triple and tricritical points.

From Quantum Codes to Gravity: A Journey of Gravitizing Quantum Mechanics

In this note, I review a recent approach to quantum gravity that “gravitizes” quantum mechanics by emerging geometry and gravity from complex quantum states. Drawing further insights from tensor network toy models in AdS/CFT, I propose that approximate quantum error correction codes, when re-adapted into the aforementioned framework, also have promise in emerging gravity in near-flat geometries.

Using Disorder to Identify Bogoliubov Fermi-Surface States

We argue that a superconducting state with a Fermi surface of Bogoliubov quasiparticles, a Bogoliubov Fermi surface (BG-FS), can be identified by the dependence of physical quantities on disorder. In particular, we show that a linear dependence of the residual density of states at weak disorder distinguishes a BG-FS state from other nodal superconducting states. We further demonstrate the stability of supercurrent against impurities and a characteristic Drude-like behavior of the optical conductivity. Our results can be directly applied to electron irradiation experiments on candidate materials of BG-FSs, including Sr_{2}RuO_{4}, FeSe_{1-x}S_{x}, and UBe_{13}.

Measurement-Induced Phase Transition in the Monitored Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Model

We construct Brownian Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) chains subjected to continuous monitoring and explore possible entanglement phase transitions therein. We analytically derive the effective action in the large-N limit and show that an entanglement transition is caused by the symmetry breaking in the enlarged replica space. In the noninteracting case with SYK_{2} chains, the model features a continuous O(2) symmetry between two replicas and a transition corresponding to spontaneous breaking of that symmetry upon varying the measurement rate. In the symmetry broken phase at low measurement rate, the emergent replica criticality associated with the Goldstone mode leads to a log-scaling entanglement entropy that can be attributed to the free energy of vortices. In the symmetric phase at higher measurement rate, the entanglement entropy obeys area-law scaling. In the interacting case, the continuous O(2) symmetry is explicitly lowered to a discrete C_{4} symmetry, giving rise to volume-law entanglement entropy in the symmetry-broken phase due to the enhanced linear free energy cost of domain walls compared to vortices. The interacting transition is described by C_{4} symmetry breaking. We also verify the large-N critical exponents by numerically solving the Schwinger-Dyson equation.

Quantum Ergodicity in the Many-Body Localization Problem

We generalize Page's result on the entanglement entropy of random pure states to the many-body eigenstates of realistic disordered many-body systems subject to long-range interactions. This extension leads to two principal conclusions: first, for increasing disorder the "shells" of constant energy supporting a system's eigenstates fill only a fraction of its full Fock space and are subject to intrinsic correlations absent in synthetic high-dimensional random lattice systems. Second, in all regimes preceding the many-body localization transition individual eigenstates are thermally distributed over these shells. These results, corroborated by comparison to exact diagonalization for an SYK model, are at variance with the concept of "nonergodic extended states" in many-body systems discussed in the recent literature.

Chaos in the Quantum Field Theory S-Matrix

A number of studies have shown that chaos occurs in scattering: the outgoing deflection angle is seen to be an erratic function of the impact parameter. We propose to extend this to quantum field theory and to use the erratic behavior of the many-particle S-matrix as a probe of chaos.

Nonlinear dynamics and quantum chaos of a family of kicked p-spin models

We introduce kicked p-spin models describing a family of transverse Ising-like models for an ensemble of spin-1/2 particles with all-to-all p-body interaction terms occurring periodically in time as delta-kicks. This is the natural generalization of the well-studied quantum kicked top (p=2) [Haake, Kuś, and Scharf, Z. Phys. B 65, 381 (1987)10.1007/BF01303727]. We fully characterize the classical nonlinear dynamics of these models, including the transition to global Hamiltonian chaos. The classical analysis allows us to build a classification for this family of models, distinguishing between p=2 and p>2, and between models with odd and even p's. Quantum chaos in these models is characterized in both kinematic and dynamic signatures. For the latter, we show numerically that the growth rate of the out-of-time-order correlator is dictated by the classical Lyapunov exponent. Finally, we argue that the classification of these models constructed in the classical system applies to the quantum system as well.

Signature of universal fast scrambling in the transient response of a driven mott insulator system

The scrambling rateλ_s, a measure of the early growth of decoherence in an interacting quantum system, has been conjectured to have a universal saturation bound,λ_s⩽ 2πk_BT/ℏ, whereTis the temperature. This decoherence arises from the spread of quantum information over a large number of untracked degrees of freedom. The commonly studied indicator of scrambling is the out of time-ordered correlator (OTOC) of noncommuting quantum operators, in-turn related to generalized uncertainty relations, and reminiscent of the Lyapunov exponent of classically chaotic systems. From a practical measurement point of view, other quantities besides OTOCs, that are also sensitive to these generalized uncertainty relations, may capture the scrambling behavior. Here, using a large-NKeldysh field theory approach, we show that the nonequilibrium current response of a Mott insulator system consisting of a mesoscopic quantum dot array, when subjected to an electric field quench, reveals this phenomenon on account of number-phase uncertainty. Both ac and dc field quenches are considered. The passage from the initial Mott insulator phase with well-defined charge excitations, to the final nonequilibrium steady current state, is revealed in the transient current response that has Bloch-like oscillations. We find that the amplitude of these oscillations decreases at the universal rate, 2πk_BT/ℏ, associated with fast scramblers. Our Mott insulator model provides a new example of a fast scrambler in addition to the known ones such as extremal black holes and the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model.

Unveiling Operator Growth Using Spin Correlation Functions

In this paper, we study non-equilibrium dynamics induced by a sudden quench of strongly correlated Hamiltonians with all-to-all interactions. By relying on a Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK)-based quench protocol, we show that the time evolution of simple spin-spin correlation functions is highly sensitive to the degree of k-locality of the corresponding operators, once an appropriate set of fundamental fields is identified. By tracking the time-evolution of specific spin-spin correlation functions and their decay, we argue that it is possible to distinguish between operator-hopping and operator growth dynamics; the latter being a hallmark of quantum chaos in many-body quantum systems. Such an observation, in turn, could constitute a promising tool to probe the emergence of chaotic behavior, rather accessible in state-of-the-art quench setups.

Fingerprint of chaos and quantum scars in kicked Dicke model: an out-of-time-order correlator study

We investigate the onset of chaos in a periodically kicked Dicke model (KDM), using the out-of-time-order correlator (OTOC) as a diagnostic tool, in both the oscillator and the spin subspaces. In the large spin limit, the classical Hamiltonian map is constructed, which allows us to investigate the corresponding phase space dynamics and to compute the Lyapunov exponent. We show that the growth rate of the OTOC for the canonically conjugate coordinates of the oscillator is able to capture the Lyapunov exponent in the chaotic regime. The onset of chaos is further investigated using the saturation value of the OTOC, that can serve as an alternate indicator of chaos in a generic interacting quantum system. This is also supported by a system independent effective random matrix model. We further identify the quantum scars in KDM and detect their dynamical signature by using the OTOC dynamics. The relevance of the present study in the context of ongoing cold atom experiments is also discussed.

Quantum Phase Transition at Nonzero Doping in a Random t-J Model

We present exact diagonalization results on finite clusters of a t-J model of spin-1/2 electrons with random all-to-all hopping and exchange interactions. We argue that such random models capture qualitatively the strong local correlations needed to describe the cuprates and related compounds, while avoiding lattice space group symmetry breaking orders. The previously known spin glass ordered phase in the insulator at doping p=0 extends to a metallic spin glass phase up to a transition p=p_{c}≈1/3. The dynamic spin susceptibility shows signatures of the spectrum of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev models near p_{c}. We also find signs of the phase transition in the entropy, entanglement entropy, and compressibility, all of which exhibit a maximum near p_{c}. The electron energy distribution function in the metallic phase is consistent with a disordered extension of the Luttinger-volume Fermi surface for p>p_{c}, while this breaks down for p<p_{c}.

Extreme Suppression of Antiferromagnetic Order and Critical Scaling in a Two-Dimensional Random Quantum Magnet

Sr_{2}CuTeO_{6} is a square-lattice Néel antiferromagnet with superexchange between first-neighbor S=1/2 Cu spins mediated by plaquette centered Te ions. Substituting Te by W, the affected impurity plaquettes have predominantly second-neighbor interactions, thus causing local magnetic frustration. Here we report a study of Sr_{2}CuTe_{1-x}W_{x}O_{6} using neutron diffraction and μSR techniques, showing that the Néel order vanishes already at x=0.025±0.005. We explain this extreme order suppression using a two-dimensional Heisenberg spin model, demonstrating that a W-type impurity induces a deformation of the order parameter that decays with distance as 1/r^{2} at temperature T=0. The associated logarithmic singularity leads to loss of order for any x>0. Order for small x>0 and T>0 is induced by weak interplane couplings. In the nonmagnetic phase of Sr_{2}CuTe_{1-x}W_{x}O_{6}, the μSR relaxation rate exhibits quantum critical scaling with a large dynamic exponent, z≈3, consistent with a random-singlet state.

Many-Body Chaos in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Model

Many-body chaos has emerged as a powerful framework for understanding thermalization in strongly interacting quantum systems. While recent analytic advances have sharpened our intuition for many-body chaos in certain large N theories, it has proven challenging to develop precise numerical tools capable of exploring this phenomenon in generic Hamiltonians. To this end, we utilize massively parallel, matrix-free Krylov subspace methods to calculate dynamical correlators in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model for up to N=60 Majorana fermions. We begin by showing that numerical results for two-point correlation functions agree at high temperatures with dynamical mean field solutions, while at low temperatures finite-size corrections are quantitatively reproduced by the exactly solvable dynamics of near extremal black holes. Motivated by these results, we develop a novel finite-size rescaling procedure for analyzing the growth of out-of-time-order correlators. Our procedure accurately determines the Lyapunov exponent, λ, across a wide range in temperatures, including in the regime where λ approaches the universal bound, λ=2π/β.

The Generalized OTOC from Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics—Study of Random Fluctuations from Eigenstate Representation of Correlation Functions

The concept of the out-of-time-ordered correlation (OTOC) function is treated as a very strong theoretical probe of quantum randomness, using which one can study both chaotic and non-chaotic phenomena in the context of quantum statistical mechanics. In this paper, we define a general class of OTOC, which can perfectly capture quantum randomness phenomena in a better way. Further, we demonstrate an equivalent formalism of computation using a general time-independent Hamiltonian having well-defined eigenstate representation for integrable Supersymmetric quantum systems. We found that one needs to consider two new correlators apart from the usual one to have a complete quantum description. To visualize the impact of the given formalism, we consider the two well-known models, viz. Harmonic Oscillator and one-dimensional potential well within the framework of Supersymmetry. For the Harmonic Oscillator case, we obtain similar periodic time dependence but dissimilar parameter dependences compared to the results obtained from both microcanonical and canonical ensembles in quantum mechanics without Supersymmetry. On the other hand, for the One-Dimensional PotentialWell problem, we found significantly different time scales and the other parameter dependence compared to the results obtained from non-Supersymmetric quantum mechanics. Finally, to establish the consistency of the prescribed formalism in the classical limit, we demonstrate the phase space averaged version of the classical version of OTOCs from a model-independent Hamiltonian, along with the previously mentioned well-cited models.

Quantum Advantage in the Charging Process of Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Batteries

The exactly solvable Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model has recently received considerable attention in both condensed matter and high energy physics because it describes quantum matter without quasiparticles, while being at the same time the holographic dual of a quantum black hole. In this Letter, we examine SYK-based charging protocols of quantum batteries with N quantum cells. Extensive numerical calculations based on exact diagonalization for N up to 16 strongly suggest that the optimal charging power of our SYK quantum batteries displays a superextensive scaling with N that stems from genuine quantum mechanical effects. While the complexity of the nonequilibrium SYK problem involved in the charging dynamics prevents us from an analytical proof, we believe that this Letter offers the first (to the best of our knowledge) strong numerical evidence of a quantum advantage occurring due to the maximally entangling underlying quantum dynamics.

Spectral statistics of random Toeplitz matrices

The spectral statistics of Hermitian random Toeplitz matrices with independent and identically distributed elements are investigated numerically. It is found that eigenvalue statistics of complex Toeplitz matrices are surprisingly well approximated by the semi-Poisson distribution belonging to intermediate-type statistics observed in certain pseudointegrable billiards. The origin of intermediate behavior could be attributed to the fact that Fourier transformed random Toeplitz matrices have the same slow decay outside the main diagonal as critical random matrix ensembles. The statistical properties of the full spectrum of real random Toeplitz matrices are close to the Poisson distribution, but each of their constituent subspectra is again well described by the semi-Poisson distribution. The findings indicate that intermediate statistics in general and the semi-Poisson distribution in particular are more universal than considered before.

Minimal Model for Fast Scrambling

We study quantum information scrambling in spin models with both long-range all-to-all and short-range interactions. We argue that a simple global, spatially homogeneous interaction together with local chaotic dynamics is sufficient to give rise to fast scrambling, which describes the spread of quantum information over the entire system in a time that is logarithmic in the system size. This is illustrated in two tractable models: (1) a random circuit with Haar random local unitaries and a global interaction and (2) a classical model of globally coupled nonlinear oscillators. We use exact numerics to provide further evidence by studying the time evolution of an out-of-time-order correlator and entanglement entropy in spin chains of intermediate sizes. Our results pave the way towards experimental investigations of fast scrambling and aspects of quantum gravity with quantum simulators.

Linear resistivity and Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) spin liquid behavior in a quantum critical metal with spin-1/2 fermions

"Strange metals" with resistivity depending linearly on temperature T down to low T have been a long-standing puzzle in condensed matter physics. Here, we consider a lattice model of itinerant spin-[Formula: see text] fermions interacting via onsite Hubbard interaction and random infinite-ranged spin-spin interaction. We show that the quantum critical point associated with the melting of the spin-glass phase by charge fluctuations displays non-Fermi liquid behavior, with local spin dynamics identical to that of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev family of models. This extends the quantum spin liquid dynamics previously established in the large-M limit of [Formula: see text] symmetric models to models with physical [Formula: see text] spin-[Formula: see text] electrons. Remarkably, the quantum critical regime also features a Planckian linear-T resistivity associated with a T-linear scattering rate and a frequency dependence of the electronic self-energy consistent with the marginal Fermi liquid phenomenology.

Towards quantum simulation of Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model

We study a simplified version of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model with real interactions by exact diagonalization. Instead of satisfying a continuous Gaussian distribution, the interaction strengths are assumed to be chosen from discrete values with a finite separation. A quantum phase transition from a chaotic state to an integrable state is observed by increasing the discrete separation. Below the critical value, the discrete model can well reproduce various physical quantities of the original SYK model, including the volume law of the ground-state entanglement, level distribution, thermodynamic entropy, and out-of-time-order correlation (OTOC) functions. For systems of size up to N=20, we find that the transition point increases with system size, indicating that a relatively weak randomness of interaction can stabilize the chaotic phase. Our findings significantly relax the stringent conditions for the realization of SYK model, and can reduce the complexity of various experimental proposals down to realistic ranges.

Recovery of Damaged Information and the Out-of-Time-Ordered Correlators

The evolution with a complex Hamiltonian generally leads to information scrambling. A time-reversed dynamics unwinds this scrambling and thus leads to the original information recovery. We show that if the scrambled information is, in addition, partially damaged by a local measurement, then such a damage can still be treated by application of the time-reversed protocol. This information recovery is described by the long-time saturation value of a certain out-of-time-ordered correlator of local variables. We also propose a simple test that distinguishes between quantum and reversible classical chaotic information scrambling.

Quantum Information Scrambling in a Trapped-Ion Quantum Simulator with Tunable Range Interactions

In ergodic many-body quantum systems, locally encoded quantum information becomes, in the course of time evolution, inaccessible to local measurements. This concept of "scrambling" is currently of intense research interest, entailing a deep understanding of many-body dynamics such as the processes of chaos and thermalization. Here, we present first experimental demonstrations of quantum information scrambling on a 10-qubit trapped-ion quantum simulator representing a tunable long-range interacting spin system, by estimating out-of-time ordered correlators (OTOCs) through randomized measurements. We also analyze the role of decoherence in our system by comparing our measurements to numerical simulations and by measuring Rényi entanglement entropies.

Periodic Table of the Ordinary and Supersymmetric Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Models

We develop a unified minimal scheme to classify quantum chaos in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) and supersymmetric (SUSY) SYK models and also work out the structure of the energy levels in one periodic table. The SYK with even q-body or SUSY SYK with odd q-body interaction, with N even or odd number of sites, are put on an equal footing in the minimal Hilbert space; N (mod 8), q (mod 4) double Bott periodicity, and a reflection condition are identified. Exact diagonalizations (EDs) are performed to study both the bulk energy level statistics and hard-edge behaviors. Excellent agreements between the ED results and the symmetry classifications are demonstrated. Our compact and systematic methods can be transformed to map out more complicated periodic tables of SYK models with more degrees of freedom, tensor models, or symmetry protected topological phases.

Supersymmetry in the Standard Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Model

Supersymmetry is a powerful concept in quantum many-body physics. It helps to illuminate ground-state properties of complex quantum systems and gives relations between correlation functions. In this Letter, we show that the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model, in its simplest form of Majorana fermions with random four-body interactions, is supersymmetric. In contrast to existing explicitly supersymmetric extensions of the model, the supersymmetry we find requires no relations between couplings. The type of supersymmetry and the structure of the supercharges are entirely set by the number of interacting Majorana modes and are thus fundamentally linked to the model's Altland-Zirnbauer classification. The supersymmetry we uncover has a natural interpretation in terms of a one-dimensional topological phase supporting Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev boundary physics and has consequences away from the ground state, including in q-body dynamical correlation functions.

Revival Dynamics in a Traversable Wormhole

Quantum effects can stabilize wormhole solutions in general relativity, allowing information and matter to be transported between two connected spacetimes. Here we study the revival dynamics of signals sent between two weakly coupled quantum chaotic systems, represented as identical Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev models, that realize holographically a traversable wormhole in anti-de Sitter spacetime AdS_{2} for large number N of particles. In this limit we find clear signatures of wormhole behavior: an excitation created in one system is quickly scrambled under its unitary dynamics, and is reassembled in the other system after a characteristic time consistent with holography predictions. This leads to revival oscillations that at low but finite temperature decay as a power law in time. For small N we also observe revivals and show that they arise from a different, nongravitational mechanism.

Connecting the SYK Dots

We study a putative (strange) metal-to-insulator transition in a granular array of the Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev (SYK) quantum dots, each occupied by a large number N ≫ 1 of charge-carrying fermions. Extending the previous studies, we complement the SYK couplings by the physically relevant Coulomb interactions and focus on the effects of charge fluctuations, evaluating the conductivity and density of states. The latter were found to demonstrate marked changes of behavior when the effective inter-site tunneling became comparable to the renormalized Coulomb energy, thereby signifying the transition in question.

Operator Lévy Flight: Light Cones in Chaotic Long-Range Interacting Systems

We argue that chaotic power-law interacting systems have emergent limits on information propagation, analogous to relativistic light cones, which depend on the spatial dimension d and the exponent α governing the decay of interactions. Using the dephasing nature of quantum chaos, we map the problem to a stochastic model with a known phase diagram. A linear light cone results for α≥d+1/2. We also provide a Lévy flight (long-range random walk) interpretation of the results and show consistent numerical data for 1D long-range spin models with 200 sites.

Information Scrambling and Loschmidt Echo

We demonstrate analytically and verify numerically that the out-of-time order correlator is given by the thermal average of Loschmidt echo signals. This provides a direct link between the out-of-time-order correlator-a recently suggested measure of information scrambling in quantum chaotic systems-and the Loschmidt echo, a well-appreciated familiar diagnostic that captures the dynamical aspect of chaotic behavior in the time domain, and is accessible to experimental studies.

Does Scrambling Equal Chaos?

Focusing on semiclassical systems, we show that the parametrically long exponential growth of out-of-time order correlators (OTOCs), also known as scrambling, does not necessitate chaos. Indeed, scrambling can simply result from the presence of unstable fixed points in phase space, even in a classically integrable model. We derive a lower bound on the OTOC Lyapunov exponent, which depends only on local properties of such fixed points. We present several models for which this bound is tight, i.e., for which scrambling is dominated by the local dynamics around the fixed points. We propose that the notion of scrambling be distinguished from that of chaos.

Periodically Driven Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Models

Periodically driven quantum matter can realize exotic dynamical phases. In order to understand how ubiquitous and robust these phases are, it is pertinent to investigate the heating dynamics of generic interacting quantum systems. Here we study the thermalization in a periodically driven generalized Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model, which realizes a crossover from a heavy Fermi liquid (FL) to a non-Fermi liquid (NFL) at a tunable energy scale. Developing an exact field theoretic approach, we determine two distinct regimes in the heating dynamics. While the NFL heats exponentially and thermalizes rapidly, we report that the presence of quasiparticles in the heavy FL obstructs heating and thermalization over comparatively long timescales. Prethermal high-frequency dynamics and possible experimental realizations of nonequilibrium SYK physics are discussed as well.

Solvable Strong-Coupling Quantum-Dot Model with a Non-Fermi-Liquid Pairing Transition

We show that a random interacting model exhibits solvable non-Fermi-liquid behavior and exotic pairing behavior. This model, dubbed as the Yukawa-SYK model, describes the random Yukawa coupling between M quantum dots each hosting N flavors of fermions and N^{2} bosons that self-tune to criticality at low energies. The diagrammatic expansion is controlled by 1/MN, and the results become exact in a large-M, large-N limit. We find that pairing only develops within a region of the (M,N) plane-even though the pairing interaction is strongly attractive, the incoherence of the fermions can spoil the forming of Cooper pairs, rendering the system a non-Fermi liquid down to zero temperature. By solving the Eliashberg equation and the renormalization group equation, we show that the transition into the pairing phase exhibits Kosterlitz-Thouless quantum-critical behavior.

Signaling and scrambling with strongly long-range interactions

Strongly long-range interacting quantum systems-those with interactions decaying as a power law 1/r α in the distance r on a D-dimensional lattice for α ⩽ D-have received significant interest in recent years. They are present in leading experimental platforms for quantum computation and simulation, as well as in theoretical models of quantum-information scrambling and fast entanglement creation. Since no notion of locality is expected in such systems, a general understanding of their dynamics is lacking. In a step towards rectifying this problem, we prove two Lieb-Robinson-type bounds that constrain the time for signaling and scrambling in strongly long-range interacting systems, for which no tight bounds were previously known. Our first bound applies to systems mappable to free-particle Hamiltonians with long-range hopping, and is saturable for α ⩽ D/2. Our second bound pertains to generic long-range interacting spin Hamiltonians and gives a tight lower bound for the signaling time to extensive subsets of the system for all α< D. This many-site signaling time lower bounds the scrambling time in strongly long-range interacting systems.

A unified form of low-energy nodal electronic interactions in hole-doped cuprate superconductors

Using angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements of Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_8+δ over a wide range of doping levels, we present a universal form for the non-Fermi liquid electronic interactions in the nodal direction in the exotic normal state phase. It is described by a continuously varying power law exponent versus energy and temperature (hence named a Power Law Liquid or PLL), which with doping varies smoothly from a quadratic Fermi Liquid in the overdoped regime, to a linear Marginal Fermi Liquid at optimal doping, to a non-quasiparticle non-Fermi Liquid in the underdoped regime. The coupling strength is essentially constant across all regimes and is consistent with Planckian dissipation. Using the extracted PLL parameters we reproduce the experimental optics and resistivity over a wide range of doping and normal-state temperature values, including the T* pseudogap temperature scale observed in the resistivity curves. This breaks the direct link to the pseudogapping of antinodal spectral weight observed at similar temperature scales and gives an alternative direction for searches of the microscopic mechanism.

The normal state of hole-doped, high-temperature superconductors is a currently-unexplained "strange metal" with exotic electronic behaviour. Here, the authors show that a doping-dependent power law ansatz for the electronic scattering phenomenologically captures ARPES, transport and optics observations.

Bounds on Chaos from the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis

We show that the known bound on the growth rate of the out-of-time-order four-point correlator in chaotic many-body quantum systems follows directly from the general structure of operator matrix elements in systems that obey the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. This ties together two key paradigms of thermal behavior in isolated many-body quantum systems.

Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Non-Fermi-Liquid Correlations in Nanoscopic Quantum Transport

Electronic transport in nanostructures, such as long molecules or 2D exfoliated flakes, often goes through a nearly degenerate set of single-particle orbitals. Here we show that in such cases a conspiracy of the narrow band and strong e-e interactions may stabilize a non-Fermi-liquid phase in the universality class of the complex Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model. Focusing on signatures in quantum transport, we demonstrate the existence of anomalous power laws in the temperature dependent conductance, including algebraic scaling T^{3/2} in the inelastic cotunneling channel, separated from the conventional Fermi liquid T^{2} scaling via a quantum phase transition. The relatively robust conditions under which these results are obtained indicate that the SYK non-Fermi-liquid universality class might not be as exotic as previously thought.

Specific heat of 2D interacting Majorana fermions from holography

Majorana fermions are a fascinating medium for discovering new phases of matter. However, the standard analytical tools are very limited in probing the non-perturbative aspects of interacting Majoranas in more than one dimensions. Here, we employ the holographic correspondence to determine the specific heat of a two-dimensional interacting gapless Majorana system. To perform our analysis we first describe the interactions in terms of a pseudo-scalar torsion field. We then allow fluctuations in the background curvature thus identifying our model with a (2 + 1)-dimensional Anti-de Sitter (AdS) geometry with torsion. By employing the AdS/CFT correspondence, we show that the interacting model is dual to a (1 + 1)-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) with central charge that depends on the interaction coupling. This non-perturbative result enables us to determine the effect interactions have in the specific heat of the system at the zero temperature limit.

Gauging classical and quantum integrability through out-of-time-ordered correlators

Out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs) have been proposed as a probe of chaos in quantum mechanics, on the basis of their short-time exponential growth found in some particular setups. However, it has been seen that this behavior is not universal. Therefore, we query other quantum chaos manifestations arising from the OTOCs, and we thus study their long-time behavior in systems of completely different nature: quantum maps, which are the simplest chaotic one-body system, and spin chains, which are many-body systems without a classical limit. It is shown that studying the long-time regime of the OTOCs it is possible to detect and gauge the transition between integrability and chaos, and we benchmark the transition with other indicators of quantum chaos based on the spectra and the eigenstates of the systems considered. For systems with a classical analog, we show that the proposed OTOC indicators have a very high accuracy that allow us to detect subtle features along the integrability-to-chaos transition.

Nonergodic Extended States in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Model

We analytically study spectral correlations and many body wave functions of a Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model deformed by a random Hamiltonian diagonal in Fock space. Our main result is the identification of a wide range of intermediate coupling strengths where the spectral statistics is of Wigner-Dyson type, while wave functions are nonuniformly distributed over Fock space. The structure of the theory suggests that such manifestations of nonergodic extendedness may be a prevalent phenomenon in many body chaotic quantum systems.

Quantum Criticality of Granular Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Matter

We consider granular quantum matter defined by Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev dots coupled via random one-body hopping. Within the framework of Schwarzian field theory, we identify a zero-temperature quantum phase transition between an insulating phase at weak and a metallic phase at strong hopping. The critical hopping strength scales inversely with the number of degrees of freedom on the dots. The increase of temperature out of either phase induces a crossover into a regime of strange metallic behavior.

Theory of a Planckian Metal

We present a lattice model of fermions with N flavors and random interactions that describes a Planckian metal at low temperatures T→0 in the solvable limit of large N. We begin with quasiparticles around a Fermi surface with effective mass m^{*} and then include random interactions that lead to fermion spectral functions with frequency scaling with k_{B}T/ℏ. The resistivity ρ obeys the Drude formula ρ=m^{*}/(ne^{2}τ_{tr}), where n is the density of fermions, and the transport scattering rate is 1/τ_{tr}=fk_{B}T/ℏ; we find f of order unity and essentially independent of the strength and form of the interactions. The random interactions are a generalization of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev models; it is assumed that processes nonresonant in the bare quasiparticle energies only renormalize m^{*}, while resonant processes are shown to produce the Planckian behavior.

Dynamical Thermalization of Interacting Fermionic Atoms in a Sinai Oscillator Trap

We study numerically the problem of dynamical thermalization of interacting cold fermionic atoms placed in an isolated Sinai oscillator trap. This system is characterized by a quantum chaos regime for one-particle dynamics. We show that, for a many-body system of cold atoms, the interactions, with a strength above a certain quantum chaos border given by the Åberg criterion, lead to the Fermi–Dirac distribution and relaxation of many-body initial states to the thermalized state in the absence of any contact with a thermostate. We discuss the properties of this dynamical thermalization and its links with the Loschmidt–Boltzmann dispute.

Interacting Majorana fermions

Majorana fermions are the real (in a mathematical sense) counterparts of complex fermions like ordinary electrons. The promise of topological quantum computing has lead to substantial experimental progress in realizing these particles in various synthetic platforms. The realization of Majorana fermions motivates a fundamental question: what phases of matter can emerge if many Majorana fermions are allowed to interact? Here we review recent progress in this direction on the proposed experimental setups, analytical and numerical results on low-dimensional lattice models, and the exactly solvable Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model. The early progress thus far suggests that strongly correlated phases of matter with Majorana building blocks can exhibit many novel phenomena, such as emergent spacetime supersymmetry, topological order and the physics of black-holes, in condensed matter systems. They may also provide alternative avenues for universal topological quantum computing through the realization of the Fibonacci phase and measurement-based only surface codes.

Operator Size at Finite Temperature and Planckian Bounds on Quantum Dynamics

It has long been believed that dissipative timescales τ obey a "Planckian" bound τ≳(ℏ/k_{B}T) in strongly coupled quantum systems. Despite much circumstantial evidence, however, there is no known τ for which this bound is universal. Here we define operator size at a finite temperature, and conjecture such a τ: the timescale over which small operators become large. All known many-body theories are consistent with this conjecture. This proposed bound explains why previously conjectured Planckian bounds do not always apply to weakly coupled theories, and how Planckian timescales can be relevant to both transport and chaos.

Timescales in the quench dynamics of many-body quantum systems: Participation ratio versus out-of-time ordered correlator

We study quench dynamics in the many-body Hilbert space using two isolated systems with a finite number of interacting particles: a paradigmatic model of randomly interacting bosons and a dynamical (clean) model of interacting spins-1/2. For both systems in the region of strong quantum chaos, the number of components of the evolving wave function, defined through the number of principal components N_{pc} (or participation ratio), was recently found to increase exponentially fast in time [Phys. Rev. E 99, 010101(R) (2019)2470-004510.1103/PhysRevE.99.010101]. Here, we ask whether the out-of-time ordered correlator (OTOC), which is nowadays widely used to quantify instability in quantum systems, can manifest analogous time dependence. We show that N_{pc} can be formally expressed as the inverse of the sum of all OTOCs for projection operators. While none of the individual projection OTOCs show an exponential behavior, their sum decreases exponentially fast in time. The comparison between the behavior of the OTOC with that of the N_{pc} helps us better understand wave packet dynamics in the many-body Hilbert space, in close connection with the problems of thermalization and information scrambling.

Operator dynamics in a Brownian quantum circuit

We view the operator spreading in chaotic evolution as a stochastic process of height growth. The height of an operator represents the size of its support and chaotic evolution increases the height. We consider N-spin models with all two-body interactions and embody the height picture in a random model. The exact solution shows that the mean height, being proportional to the squared commutator, grows exponentially within logN scrambling time and saturates in a manner of logistic function. We propose that the temperature dependence of the chaos bound could be due to initial height biased toward high operators, which has a smaller Lyapunov exponent.