Deriving conditions under which a macroscopic system thermalizes directly from the underlying quantum many-body dynamics of its microscopic constituents is a long-standing challenge in theoretical physics. The well-known eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) is presumed to be a key mechanism, but has defied rigorous verification for generic systems thus far. A weaker variant (weak ETH), by contrast, is provably true for a large variety of systems, including even many integrable models, but its implications with respect to the problem of thermalization are still largely unexplored. Here we analytically demonstrate that systems satisfying the weak ETH exhibit thermalization for two very natural classes of far-from-equilibrium initial conditions: the overwhelming majority of all pure states with a preset non-equilibrium expectation value of some given local observable, and the Gibbs states of a Hamiltonian which subsequently is subject to a quantum quench in the form of a sudden change of some local system properties.
Eigenstate thermalization is widely accepted as the mechanism behind thermalization in generic isolated quantum systems. Using the example of a single magnetic defect embedded in the integrable spin-1/2 $XXZ$ chain, we show that locally perturbing an integrable system can give rise to eigenstate thermalization. Unique to such setups is the fact that thermodynamic and transport properties of the unperturbed integrable chain emerge in properties of the eigenstates of the perturbed (nonintegrable) one. Specifically, we show that the diagonal matrix elements of observables in the perturbed eigenst…
The Toda lattice is a nonlinear but integrable system. Here we study the thermalization problem in one-dimensional, perturbed Toda lattices in the thermodynamic limit. We show that the thermalization time, $T_{eq}$, follows a universal law; i.e., $T_{eq}\sim ε^{-2}$, where the perturbation strength, $ε$, characterizes the nonlinear perturbations added to the Toda potential. This universal law applies generally to weak nonlinear lattices due to their equivalence to perturbed Toda systems.
Full macroscopic thermalization and the formation of Schrödinger's cats by unitary time evolution in the weakly perturbed Ising model - Applications of the Roos-Sugimoto-Teufel-Tumulka-Vogel theory
We verify that the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) holds universally for locally interacting quantum many-body systems. Introducing random-matrix ensembles with interactions, we numerically obtain a distribution of maximum fluctuations of eigenstate expectation values for different realizations of the interactions. This distribution, which cannot be obtained from the conventional random matrix theory involving nonlocal correlations, demonstrates that an overwhelming majority of pairs of local Hamiltonians and observables satisfy the ETH with exponentially small fluctuations. The erg…
Motivated by dynamical experiments on cold atomic gases, we develop a quantum kinetic approach to weakly perturbed integrable models out of equilibrium. Using the exact matrix elements of the underlying integrable model we establish an analytical approach to real-time dynamics. The method addresses a broad range of timescales, from the intermediate regime of pre-thermalization to late-time thermalization. Predictions are given for the time-evolution of physical quantities, including effective temperatures and thermalization rates. The approach provides conceptual links between perturbed quantu…
Macroscopic thermalization by unitary time evolution in the weakly perturbed two-dimensional Ising model --- An application of the Roos-Sugimoto-Teufel-Tumulka-Vogel theory
Department of Physics, Gakushuin University（学习院大学物理系）
Recently, there have been significant new insights concerning conditions under which closed systems equilibrate locally. The question if subsystems thermalize---if the equilibrium state is independent of the initial state---is however much harder to answer in general. Here, we consider a setting in which thermalization can be addressed: A quantum quench under a Hamiltonian whose spectrum is fixed and basis is drawn from the Haar measure. If the Fourier transform of the spectral density is small, almost all bases lead to local equilibration to the thermal state with infinite temperature. This a…
We study the matrix elements of local operators in the eigenstates of the integrable XXZ chain and of the quantum-chaotic model obtained by locally perturbing the XXZ chain with a magnetic impurity. We show that, at frequencies that are polynomially small in the system size, the behavior of the variances of the off-diagonal matrix elements can be starkly different depending on the operator. In the integrable model we find that, as the frequency $ω\rightarrow0$, the variances are either nonvanishing (generic behavior) or vanishing (for a special class of operators). In the quantum-chaotic model…
Thermal states are the bedrock of statistical physics. Nevertheless, when and how they actually arise in closed quantum systems is not fully understood. We consider this question for systems with local Hamiltonians on finite quantum lattices. In a first step, we show that states with exponentially decaying correlations equilibrate after a quantum quench. Then we show that the equilibrium state is locally equivalent to a thermal state, provided that the free energy of the equilibrium state is sufficiently small and the thermal state has exponentially decaying correlations. As an application, we…
We study thermalization in many-body quantum systems locally coupled to an external bath. It is shown that quantum chaotic systems do thermalize, that is, they exhibit relaxation to an invariant ergodic state which, in the bulk, is well approximated by the grand canonical state. Moreover, the resulting ergodic state in the bulk does not depend on the details of the baths. On the other hand, for integrable systems the invariant state does depend on the bath and is different from the grand canonical state.
We study the prethermalization and thermalization dynamics of local observables in weakly perturbed nonintegrable systems, with Hamiltonians of the form $\hat{H}_0+g\hat{V}$, where $\hat{H}_0$ is nonintegrable and $g\hat{V}$ is a perturbation. We explore the dynamics of far from equilibrium initial states in the thermodynamic limit using a numerical linked cluster expansion (NLCE), and in finite systems with periodic boundaries using exact diagonalization. We argue that generic observables exhibit a two-step relaxation process, with a fast prethermal dynamics followed by a slow thermalizing on…
Prethermalization has been extensively studied in systems close to integrability. We propose a more general, yet conceptually simpler, setup for this phenomenon. We consider a---possibly nonintegrable---reference dynamics, weakly perturbed so that the perturbation breaks at least one conservation law of the reference dynamics. We argue then that the evolution of the system proceeds via intermediate (generalized) equilibrium states of the reference dynamics. The motion on the manifold of equilibrium states is governed by an autonomous equation, flowing towards global equilibrium in a time of or…
We investigate the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) in d+1 dimensional conformal field theories by studying reduced density matrices in energy eigenstates. We show that if local probes of high energy primary eigenstates satisfy ETH, then any finite energy observable with support on a subsystem of finite size satisfies ETH. In two dimensions, we discover that if ETH holds locally, the finite size reduced density matrix of states created by heavy primary operators is well-approximated by a projection to the Virasoro identity block.
We study thermalization in open quantum systems using the Lindblad formalism. A method that both thermalizes and couples to Lindblad operators only at edges of the system is introduced. Our method leads to a Gibbs state of the system, satisfies fluctuation-dissipation relations, and applies both to integrable and non-integrable systems. Possible applications of the method include the study of systems coupled locally to multiple reservoirs. Our analysis also highlights the limits of applicability of the Lindblad approach to study strongly driven systems.
Uphill currents are observed when mass diffuses in the direction of the density gradient. We study this phenomenon in stationary conditions in the framework of locally perturbed 1D Zero Range Processes (ZRP). We show that the onset of currents flowing from the reservoir with smaller density to the one with larger density can be caused by a local asymmetry in the hopping rates on a single site at the center of the lattice. For fixed injection rates at the boundaries, we prove that a suitable tuning of the asymmetry in the bulk may induce uphill diffusion at arbitrarily large, finite volumes. We…
It has previously been suggested that small subsystems of closed quantum systems thermalize under some assumptions; however, this has been rigorously shown so far only for systems with very weak interaction between subsystems. In this work, we give rigorous analytic results on thermalization for translation-invariant quantum lattice systems with finite-range interaction of arbitrary strength, in all cases where there is a unique equilibrium state at the corresponding temperature. We clarify the physical picture by showing that subsystems relax towards the reduction of the global Gibbs state, n…
Quantum many-body scars (QMBS) appear in a flat-band model with interactions on the saw-tooth lattice. The flat-band model includes a compact support localized eigenstates, called compact localized state (CLS). Some characteristic many-body states can be constructed from the CLSs at a low-filling on the flat-band. These many-body states are degenerate. Starting with such degenerate states we concretely show how to construct multiple QMBSs with different eigenenergies embedded in the entire spectrum. If the degeneracy is lifted by introducing hopping modulation or weak perturbations, these stat…
We review some recent developments in the statistical mechanics of isolated quantum systems. We provide a brief introduction to quantum thermalization, paying particular attention to the `Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis' (ETH), and the resulting `single-eigenstate statistical mechanics'. We then focus on a class of systems which fail to quantum thermalize and whose eigenstates violate the ETH: These are the many-body Anderson localized systems; their long-time properties are not captured by the conventional ensembles of quantum statistical mechanics. These systems can locally remember for…
We investigate the dissipative dynamics of a quantum critical system in contact with a thermal bath. In analogy with the standard protocol employed to analyze aging, we study the response of a system to a sudden change of the bath temperature. The specific example of the XY model in a transverse magnetic field whose spins are locally coupled to a set of bosonic baths is considered. The peculiar nature of the dynamics is encoded in the correlations developing out of equilibrium. By means of a kinetic equation we analyze the spin-spin correlations and block correlations. We identify some univers…
A well-isolated system often shows relaxation to a quasi-stationary state before reaching thermal equilibrium. Such a prethermalization has attracted considerable interest recently in association with closely related fundamental problems of relaxation and thermalization of isolated quantum systems. Motivated by the recent experiment in ultracold atoms, we study the dynamics of a one-dimensional Bose gas which is split into two subsystems, and find that individual subsystems relax to Gibbs states, yet the entire system does not due to quantum entanglement. In view of recent experimental realiza…
Quantum many-body dynamics generically results in increasing entanglement that eventually leads to thermalization of local observables. This makes the exact description of the dynamics complex despite the apparent simplicity of (high-temperature) thermal states. For accurate but approximate simulations one needs a way to keep track of essential (quantum) information while discarding inessential one. To this end, we first introduce the concept of the information lattice, which supplements the physical spatial lattice with an additional dimension and where a local Hamiltonian gives rise to well …
We analyze two-dimensional (2D) random systems driven by a symmetric Lévy stable noise which, under the sole influence of external (force) potentials $Φ(x) $, asymptotically set down at Boltzmann-type thermal equilibria. Such behavior is excluded within standard ramifications of the Langevin approach to Lévy flights. In the present paper we address the response of Lévy noise not to an external conservative force field, but directly to its potential $Φ(x)$. We prescribe a priori the target pdf $ρ_*$ in the Boltzmann form $\sim \exp[- Φ(x)]$ and next select the Lévy noise of interest. Given suit…
At low energy, the dynamics of excitations of many physical systems are locally constrained. Examples include frustrated anti-ferromagnets, fractional quantum Hall fluids and Rydberg atoms in the blockaded regime. Can such locally constrained systems be fully many-body localized (MBL)? In this article, we answer this question affirmatively and elucidate the structure of the accompanying quasi-local integrals of motion. By studying disordered spin chains subject to a projection constraint in the $z$-direction, we show that full MBL is stable at strong $z$-field disorder and identify a new mecha…
