Observation of hydrodynamization and local prethermalization in 1D Bose gases.

Hydrodynamics accurately describe relativistic heavy-ion collision experiments well before local thermal equilibrium is established1. This unexpectedly rapid onset of hydrodynamics-which takes place on the fastest available timescale-is called hydrodynamization2-4. It occurs when an interacting quantum system is quenched with an energy density that is much greater than its ground-state energy density5,6. During hydrodynamization, energy gets redistributed across very different energy scales. Hydrodynamization precedes local equilibration among momentum modes5, which is local prethermalization to a generalized Gibbs ensemble7,8 in nearly integrable systems or local thermalization in non-integrable systems9. Although many theories of quantum dynamics postulate local prethermalization10,11, the associated timescale has not been studied experimentally. Here we use an array of one-dimensional Bose gases to directly observe both hydrodynamization and local prethermalization. After we apply a Bragg scattering pulse, hydrodynamization is evident in the fast redistribution of energy among distant momentum modes, which occurs on timescales associated with the Bragg peak energies. Local prethermalization can be seen in the slower redistribution of occupation among nearby momentum modes. We find that the timescale for local prethermalization in our system is inversely proportional to the momenta involved. During hydrodynamization and local prethermalization, existing theories cannot quantitatively model our experiment. Exact theoretical calculations in the Tonks-Girardeau limit12 show qualitatively similar features.

Generalized Thermalization in Quantum-Chaotic Quadratic Hamiltonians.

Thermalization (generalized thermalization) in nonintegrable (integrable) quantum systems requires two ingredients: equilibration and agreement with the predictions of the Gibbs (generalized Gibbs) ensemble. We prove that observables that exhibit eigenstate thermalization in single-particle sector equilibrate in many-body sectors of quantum-chaotic quadratic models. Remarkably, the same observables do not exhibit eigenstate thermalization in many-body sectors (we establish that there are exponentially many outliers). Hence, the generalized Gibbs ensemble is generally needed to describe their expectation values after equilibration, and it is characterized by Lagrange multipliers that are smooth functions of single-particle energies.

Eigenstate Entanglement Entropy in Random Quadratic Hamiltonians.

The eigenstate entanglement entropy is a powerful tool to distinguish integrable from generic quantum-chaotic models. In integrable models, the average eigenstate entanglement entropy (over all Hamiltonian eigenstates) has a volume-law coefficient that generally depends on the subsystem fraction. In contrast, it is maximal (subsystem fraction independent) in quantum-chaotic models. Using random matrix theory for quadratic Hamiltonians, we obtain a closed-form expression for the average eigenstate entanglement entropy as a function of the subsystem fraction. We test it against numerical results for the quadratic Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model and show that it describes the results for the power-law random banded matrix model (in the delocalized regime). We show that localization in quasimomentum space produces (small) deviations from our analytic predictions.

Eigenstate Thermalization in a Locally Perturbed Integrable System.

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 eigenstates follow the microcanonical predictions for the integrable model, and that the ballistic character of spin transport in the integrable model is manifest in the behavior of the off-diagonal matrix elements of the current operator in the perturbed eigenstates.

Heating Rates in Periodically Driven Strongly Interacting Quantum Many-Body Systems.

We study heating rates in strongly interacting quantum lattice systems in the thermodynamic limit. Using a numerical linked cluster expansion, we calculate the energy as a function of the driving time and find a robust exponential regime. The heating rates are shown to be in excellent agreement with Fermi's golden rule. We discuss the relationship between heating rates and, within the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, the smooth function that characterizes the off-diagonal matrix elements of the drive operator in the eigenbasis of the static Hamiltonian. We show that such a function, in nonintegrable and (remarkably) integrable Hamiltonians, can be probed experimentally by studying heating rates as functions of the drive frequency.

Quantum Quenches and Relaxation Dynamics in the Thermodynamic Limit.

We implement numerical linked cluster expansions (NLCEs) to study dynamics of lattice systems following quantum quenches, and focus on a hard-core boson model in one-dimensional lattices. We find that, in the nonintegrable regime and within the accessible times, local observables exhibit exponential relaxation. We determine the relaxation rate as one departs from the integrable point and show that it scales quadratically with the strength of the integrability breaking perturbation. We compare the NLCE results with those from exact diagonalization calculations on finite chains with periodic boundary conditions, and show that NLCEs are far more accurate.

Volume Law and Quantum Criticality in the Entanglement Entropy of Excited Eigenstates of the Quantum Ising Model.

Much has been learned about universal properties of entanglement entropies in ground states of quantum many-body lattice systems. Here we unveil universal properties of the average bipartite entanglement entropy of eigenstates of the paradigmatic quantum Ising model in one dimension. The leading term exhibits a volume-law scaling that we argue is universal for translationally invariant quadratic models. The subleading term is constant at the critical field for the quantum phase transition and vanishes otherwise (in the thermodynamic limit); i.e., the critical field can be identified from subleading corrections to the average (over all eigenstates) entanglement entropy.

Entanglement Entropy of Eigenstates of Quantum Chaotic Hamiltonians.

In quantum statistical mechanics, it is of fundamental interest to understand how close the bipartite entanglement entropy of eigenstates of quantum chaotic Hamiltonians is to maximal. For random pure states in the Hilbert space, the average entanglement entropy is known to be nearly maximal, with a deviation that is, at most, a constant. Here we prove that, in a system that is away from half filling and divided in two equal halves, an upper bound for the average entanglement entropy of random pure states with a fixed particle number and normally distributed real coefficients exhibits a deviation from the maximal value that grows with the square root of the volume of the system. Exact numerical results for highly excited eigenstates of a particle number conserving quantum chaotic model indicate that the bound is saturated with increasing system size.

Entanglement Entropy of Eigenstates of Quadratic Fermionic Hamiltonians.

In a seminal paper [D. N. Page, Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 1291 (1993)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.71.1291], Page proved that the average entanglement entropy of subsystems of random pure states is S_{ave}≃lnD_{A}-(1/2)D_{A}^{2}/D for 1≪D_{A}≤sqrt[D], where D_{A} and D are the Hilbert space dimensions of the subsystem and the system, respectively. Hence, typical pure states are (nearly) maximally entangled. We develop tools to compute the average entanglement entropy ⟨S⟩ of all eigenstates of quadratic fermionic Hamiltonians. In particular, we derive exact bounds for the most general translationally invariant models lnD_{A}-(lnD_{A})^{2}/lnD≤⟨S⟩≤lnD_{A}-[1/(2ln2)](lnD_{A})^{2}/lnD. Consequently, we prove that (i) if the subsystem size is a finite fraction of the system size, then ⟨S⟩

Equilibration Dynamics of Strongly Interacting Bosons in 2D Lattices with Disorder.

Motivated by recent optical lattice experiments [J.-y. Choi et al., Science 352, 1547 (2016)SCIEAS0036-807510.1126/science.aaf8834], we study the dynamics of strongly interacting bosons in the presence of disorder in two dimensions. We show that Gutzwiller mean-field theory (GMFT) captures the main experimental observations, which are a result of the competition between disorder and interactions. Our findings highlight the difficulty in distinguishing glassy dynamics, which can be captured by GMFT, and many-body localization, which cannot be captured by GMFT, and indicate the need for further experimental studies of this system.

Fundamental Asymmetry in Quenches Between Integrable and Nonintegrable Systems.

We study quantum quenches between integrable and nonintegrable hard-core boson models in the thermodynamic limit with numerical linked cluster expansions. We show that while quenches in which the initial state is a thermal equilibrium state of an integrable model and the final Hamiltonian is nonintegrable (quantum chaotic) lead to thermalization, the reverse is not true. While this might appear counterintuitive given the fact that the eigenstates of both Hamiltonians are related by a unitary transformation, we argue that it is generic. Hence, the lack of thermalization of integrable systems is robust against quenches starting from stationary states of nonintegrable ones. Nonintegrable systems thermalize independently of the nature of the initial Hamiltonian.

Nonequilibrium dynamics of one-dimensional hard-core anyons following a quench: complete relaxation of one-body observables.

We demonstrate the role of interactions in driving the relaxation of an isolated integrable quantum system following a sudden quench. We consider a family of integrable hard-core lattice anyon models that continuously interpolates between noninteracting spinless fermions and strongly interacting hard-core bosons. A generalized Jordan-Wigner transformation maps the entire family to noninteracting fermions. We find that, aside from the singular free-fermion limit, the entire single-particle density matrix and, therefore, all one-body observables relax to the predictions of the generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE). This demonstrates that, in the presence of interactions, correlations between particles in the many-body wave function provide the effective dissipation required to drive the relaxation of all one-body observables to the GGE. This relaxation does not depend on translational invariance or the tracing out of any spatial domain of the system.

Thermalization and its mechanism for generic isolated quantum systems.

An understanding of the temporal evolution of isolated many-body quantum systems has long been elusive. Recently, meaningful experimental studies of the problem have become possible, stimulating theoretical interest. In generic isolated systems, non-equilibrium dynamics is expected to result in thermalization: a relaxation to states in which the values of macroscopic quantities are stationary, universal with respect to widely differing initial conditions, and predictable using statistical mechanics. However, it is not obvious what feature of many-body quantum mechanics makes quantum thermalization possible in a sense analogous to that in which dynamical chaos makes classical thermalization possible. For example, dynamical chaos itself cannot occur in an isolated quantum system, in which the time evolution is linear and the spectrum is discrete. Some recent studies even suggest that statistical mechanics may give incorrect predictions for the outcomes of relaxation in such systems. Here we demonstrate that a generic isolated quantum many-body system does relax to a state well described by the standard statistical-mechanical prescription. Moreover, we show that time evolution itself plays a merely auxiliary role in relaxation, and that thermalization instead happens at the level of individual eigenstates, as first proposed by Deutsch and Srednicki. A striking consequence of this eigenstate-thermalization scenario, confirmed for our system, is that knowledge of a single many-body eigenstate is sufficient to compute thermal averages-any eigenstate in the microcanonical energy window will do, because they all give the same result.

Numerical linked-cluster expansions for two-dimensional spin models with continuous disorder distributions.

We show that numerical linked cluster expansions (NLCEs) based on sufficiently large building blocks allow one to obtain accurate low-temperature results for the thermodynamic properties of spin lattice models with continuous disorder distributions. Specifically, we show that such results can be obtained computing the disorder averages in the NLCE clusters before calculating their weights. We provide a proof of concept using three different NLCEs based on L, square, and rectangle building blocks. We consider both classical (Ising) and quantum (Heisenberg) spin-1/2 models and show that convergence can be achieved down to temperatures that are up to two orders of magnitude lower than the relevant energy scale in the model. Additionally, we provide evidence that in one dimension one can obtain accurate results for observables such as the energy down to their ground-state values.

Phantom energy in the nonlinear response of a quantum many-body scar state.

Quantum many-body scars are notable as nonthermal, low-entanglement states that exist at high energies. In this study, we used attractively interacting dysprosium gases to create scar states that are stable enough to be driven into a strongly nonlinear regime while retaining their character. We measured how the kinetic and total energies evolve after quenching the confining potential. Although the bare interactions are attractive, the atoms behave as if they repel each other: Their kinetic energy paradoxically decreases as the gas is compressed. The missing "phantom" energy is quantified by benchmarking our experimental results against generalized hydrodynamics calculations. We present evidence that the missing kinetic energy is carried by undetected, very high momentum atoms.

Fluctuation-dissipation theorem in an isolated system of quantum dipolar bosons after a quench.

We examine the validity of fluctuation-dissipation relations in isolated quantum systems taken out of equilibrium by a sudden quench. We focus on the dynamics of trapped hard-core bosons in one-dimensional lattices with dipolar interactions whose strength is changed during the quench. We find indications that fluctuation-dissipation relations hold if the system is nonintegrable after the quench, as well as if it is integrable after the quench if the initial state is an equilibrium state of a nonintegrable Hamiltonian. On the other hand, we find indications that they fail if the system is integrable both before and after quenching.

L-based numerical linked cluster expansion for square lattice models.

We introduce a numerical linked cluster expansion for square-lattice models whose building block is an L-shape cluster. For the spin-1/2 models studied in this work, we find that this expansion exhibits a similar or better convergence of the bare sums than that of the (larger) square-shaped clusters and can be used with resummation techniques (like the site- and bond-based expansions) to obtain results at even lower temperatures. We compare the performance of weak- and strong-embedding versions of this expansion in various spin-1/2 models and show that the strong-embedding version is preferable because of its convergence properties and lower computational cost. Finally, we show that the expansion based on the L-shape cluster can be naturally used to study properties of lattice models that smoothly connect the square and triangular lattice geometries.

Alternatives to eigenstate thermalization.

An isolated quantum many-body system in an initial pure state will come to thermal equilibrium if it satisfies the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH). We consider alternatives to ETH that have been proposed. We first show that von Neumann's quantum ergodic theorem relies on an assumption that is essentially equivalent to ETH. We also investigate whether, following a sudden quench, special classes of pure states can lead to thermal behavior in systems that do not obey ETH, namely, integrable systems. We find examples of this, but only for initial states that obeyed ETH before the quench.