Emergence of unitary symmetry of microcanonically truncated operators in chaotic quantum systems.

We study statistical properties of matrix elements of observables written in the energy eigenbasis and truncated to small microcanonical windows. We present numerical evidence indicating that for all few-body operators in chaotic many-body systems, truncated below a certain energy scale, collective statistical properties of matrix elements exhibit emergent unitary symmetry. Namely, we show that below a certain scale the spectra of the truncated operators exhibit universal behavior, matching our analytic predictions, which are numerically testable for system sizes beyond exact diagonalization.

Estimation of equilibration time scales from nested fraction approximations.

We consider an autocorrelation function of a quantum mechanical system through the lens of the so-called recursive method, by iteratively evaluating Lanczos coefficients or solving a system of coupled differential equations in the Mori formalism. We first show that both methods are mathematically equivalent, each offering certain practical advantages. We then propose an approximation scheme to evaluate the autocorrelation function and use it to estimate the equilibration time τ for the observable in question.

Interplay of decoherence and relaxation in a two-level system interacting with an infinite-temperature reservoir.

We study the time evolution of a single qubit in contact with a bath, within the framework of projection operator methods. Employing the so-called modified Redfield theory, which also treats energy conserving interactions nonperturbatively, we are able to study the regime beyond the scope of the ordinary approach. Reduced equations of motion for the qubit are derived in an idealistic system where both the bath and system-bath interactions are modeled by Gaussian distributed random matrices.

Entanglement Dynamics and Classical Complexity.

We study the dynamical generation of entanglement for a two-body interacting system, starting from a separable coherent state. We show analytically that in the quasiclassical regime the entanglement growth rate can be simply computed by means of the underlying classical dynamics. Furthermore, this rate is given by the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy, which characterizes the dynamical complexity of classical motion.

Numerically probing the universal operator growth hypothesis.

Recently, a hypothesis on the complexity growth of unitarily evolving operators was presented. This hypothesis states that in generic, nonintegrable many-body systems, the so-called Lanczos coefficients associated with an autocorrelation function grow asymptotically linear, with a logarithmic correction in one-dimensional systems. In contrast, the growth is expected to be slower in integrable or free models.

Integral fluctuation theorem and generalized Clausius inequality for microcanonical and pure states.

Fluctuation theorems are cornerstones of modern statistical mechanics and their standard derivations routinely rely on the crucial assumption of a canonical equilibrium state. Yet rigorous derivations of certain fluctuation theorems for microcanonical states and pure energy eigenstates in isolated quantum systems are still lacking and constitute a major challenge to theory. In this work we tackle this challenge and present such a derivation of an integral fluctuation theorem (IFT) by invoking two central and physically natural conditions, i.

Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis and Its Deviations from Random-Matrix Theory beyond the Thermalization Time.

The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis explains the emergence of the thermodynamic equilibrium in isolated quantum many-body systems by assuming a particular structure of the observable's matrix elements in the energy eigenbasis. Schematically, it postulates that off-diagonal matrix elements are random numbers and the observables can be described by random matrix theory (RMT). To what extent a RMT description applies, more precisely at which energy scale matrix elements of physical operators become truly uncorrelated, is, however, not fully understood.

Quantum chaos and the correspondence principle.

The correspondence principle is a cornerstone in the entire construction of quantum mechanics. This principle has been recently challenged by the observation of an early-time exponential increase of the out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC) in classically nonchaotic systems [E. B.

Chaotic dynamics of a non-Hermitian kicked particle.

We investigate both the classical and quantum dynamics of a kicked particle withPTsymmetry. In chaotic situation, the mean energy of the real parts of momentum linearly increases with time, and that of the imaginary momentum exponentially increases. There exists a breakdown time for chaotic diffusion, which is obtained both analytically and numerically.

Directed momentum current induced by the PT-symmetric driving.

We investigate the directed momentum current in the quantum kicked rotor model with PT-symmetric deriving potential. For the quantum nonresonance case, the values of quasienergy become complex when the strength of the imaginary part of the kicking potential exceeds a threshold value, which demonstrates the appearance of the spontaneous PT symmetry breaking. In the vicinity of the transition point, the momentum current exhibits a staircase growth with time.

Characterization of random features of chaotic eigenfunctions in unperturbed basis.

In this paper we study random features manifested in components of energy eigenfunctions of quantum chaotic systems, given in the basis of unperturbed, integrable systems. Based on semiclassical analysis, particularly on Berry's conjecture, it is shown that the components in classically allowed regions can be regarded as Gaussian random numbers in a certain sense, when appropriately rescaled with respect to the average shape of the eigenfunctions. This suggests that when a perturbed system changes from integrable to chaotic, deviation of the distribution of rescaled components in classically allowed regions from the Gaussian distribution may be employed as a measure for the "distance" to quantum chaos.

Correlations in eigenfunctions of quantum chaotic systems with sparse Hamiltonian matrices.

In most realistic models for quantum chaotic systems, the Hamiltonian matrices in unperturbed bases have a sparse structure. We study correlations in eigenfunctions of such systems and derive explicit expressions for some of the correlation functions with respect to energy. The analytical results are tested in several models by numerical simulations.

Internal temperature of quantum chaotic systems at the nanoscale.

The extent to which a temperature can be appropriately assigned to a small quantum system, as an internal property but not as a property of any large environment, is still an open problem. In this paper, a method is proposed for solving this problem, by which a studied small system is coupled to a two-level system as a probe, the latter of which can be measured by measurement devices. A main difficulty in the determination of possible temperature of the studied system comes from the back-action of the probe-system coupling to the system.