Probing dynamical sensitivity of a non-Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser system through out-of-time-order correlators.

Non-Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) systems, when perturbed by weak time-dependent fields, offer a fast route to classical chaos through an abrupt breaking of invariant phase-space tori. In this work, we employ out-of-time-order correlators (OTOCs) to study the dynamical sensitivity of a perturbed non-KAM system in the quantum limit as the parameter that characterizes the resonance condition is slowly varied. For this purpose, we consider a quantized kicked harmonic oscillator (KHO) model, which displays stochastic webs resembling Arnold's diffusion that facilitate large-scale diffusion in the phase space. Although the Lyapunov exponent of the KHO at resonances remains close to zero in the weak perturbative regime, making the system weakly chaotic in the conventional sense, the classical phase space undergoes significant structural changes. Motivated by this, we study the OTOCs when the system is in resonance and contrast the results with the nonresonant case. At resonances, we observe that the long-time dynamics of the OTOCs are sensitive to these structural changes, where they grow quadratically as opposed to linear or stagnant growth at nonresonances. On the other hand, our findings suggest that the short-time dynamics remain relatively more stable and show the exponential growth found in the literature for unstable fixed points. The numerical results are backed by analytical expressions derived for a few special cases. We will then extend our findings concerning the nonresonant cases to a broad class of near-integrable KAM systems.

Quantum coherence controls the nature of equilibration and thermalization in coupled chaotic systems.

A bipartite system whose subsystems are fully quantum chaotic and coupled by a perturbative interaction with a tunable strength is a paradigmatic model for investigating how isolated quantum systems relax toward an equilibrium. It is found that quantum coherence of the initial product states in the energy eigenbasis of the subsystems-quantified by the off-diagonal elements of the subsystem density matrices-can be viewed as a resource for equilibration and thermalization as manifested by the entanglement generated. Results are given for four distinct perturbation strength regimes, the ultraweak, weak, intermediate, and strong regimes. For each, three types of tensor product states are considered for the initial state: uniform superpositions, random superpositions, and individual subsystem eigenstates. A universal timescale is identified involving the interaction strength parameter. In particular, maximally coherent initial product states (a form of uniform superpositions) thermalize under time evolution for any perturbation strength in spite of the fact that in the ultraweak perturbative regime the underlying eigenstates of the system have a tensor product structure and are not at all thermal-like; though the time taken to thermalize tends to infinity as the interaction vanishes. Moreover, it is shown that in the ultraweak regime the initial entanglement growth of the system whose initial states are maximally coherent is quadratic-in-time, in contrast to the widely observed linear behavior.

Thirty-six Entangled Officers of Euler: Quantum Solution to a Classically Impossible Problem.

The negative solution to the famous problem of 36 officers of Euler implies that there are no two orthogonal Latin squares of order six. We show that the problem has a solution, provided the officers are entangled, and construct orthogonal quantum Latin squares of this size. As a consequence, we find an example of the long-elusive Absolutely Maximally Entangled state AME(4,6) of four subsystems with six levels each, equivalently a 2-unitary matrix of size 36, which maximizes the entangling power among all bipartite unitary gates of this dimension, or a perfect tensor with four indices, each running from one to six. This special state deserves the appellation golden AME state, as the golden ratio appears prominently in its elements. This result allows us to construct a pure nonadditive quhex quantum error detection code ((3,6,2))_{6}, which saturates the Singleton bound and allows one to encode a six-level state into a triplet of such states.

Quantum walks with quantum chaotic coins: Loschmidt echo, classical limit, and thermalization.

Coined discrete-time quantum walks are studied using simple deterministic dynamical systems as coins whose classical limit can range from being integrable to chaotic. It is shown that a Loschmidt echo-like fidelity plays a central role, and when the coin is chaotic this is approximately the characteristic function of a classical random walker. Thus the classical binomial distribution arises as a limit of the quantum walk and the walker exhibits diffusive growth before eventually becoming ballistic. The coin-walker entanglement growth is shown to be logarithmic in time as in the case of many-body localization and coupled kicked rotors, and saturates to a value that depends on the relative coin and walker space dimensions. In a coin-dominated scenario, the chaos can thermalize the quantum walk to typical random states such that the entanglement saturates at the Haar averaged Page value, unlike in a walker-dominated case when atypical states seem to be produced.

Creating Ensembles of Dual Unitary and Maximally Entangling Quantum Evolutions.

Maximally entangled bipartite unitary operators or gates find various applications from quantum information to many-body physics wherein they are building blocks of minimal models of quantum chaos. In the latter case, they are referred to as "dual unitaries." Dual unitary operators that can create the maximum average entanglement when acting on product states have to satisfy additional constraints. These have been called "2-unitaries" and are examples of perfect tensors that can be used to construct absolutely maximally entangled states of four parties. Hitherto, no systematic method exists in any local dimension, which results in the formation of such special classes of unitary operators. We outline an iterative protocol, a nonlinear map on the space of unitary operators, that creates ensembles whose members are arbitrarily close to being dual unitaries. For qutrits and ququads we find that a slightly modified protocol yields a plethora of 2-unitaries.

Entanglement production by interaction quenches of quantum chaotic subsystems.

The entanglement production in bipartite quantum systems is studied for initially unentangled product eigenstates of the subsystems, which are assumed to be quantum chaotic. Based on a perturbative computation of the Schmidt eigenvalues of the reduced density matrix, explicit expressions for the time-dependence of entanglement entropies, including the von Neumann entropy, are given. An appropriate rescaling of time and the entropies by their saturation values leads a universal curve, independent of the interaction. The extension to the nonperturbative regime is performed using a recursively embedded perturbation theory to produce the full transition and the saturation values. The analytical results are found to be in good agreement with numerical results for random matrix computations and a dynamical system given by a pair of coupled kicked rotors.

Out-of-time-ordered correlators and quantum walks.

Out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs) have recently attracted significant attention, finding applications in disparate areas, from the physics of many-body systems to quantum black holes, with an exponential growth of the OTOCs indicating quantum chaos. Here we consider OTOCs in the context of coined discrete quantum walks, a well-studied model of quantization of classical random walks with applications to quantum algorithms. Three separate cases of operators, variously localized in the coin and walker spaces, are discussed in this context and it is found that the approximated behavior of the OTOC is well described by simple algebraic functions in all three cases with different timescales of growth. The quadratic increase of OTOCs signals the absence of quantum chaos in these simplest forms of quantum walks.

Quantum signatures of chaos, thermalization, and tunneling in the exactly solvable few-body kicked top.

Exactly solvable models that exhibit quantum signatures of classical chaos are both rare as well as important-more so in view of the fact that the mechanisms for ergodic behavior and thermalization in isolated quantum systems and its connections to nonintegrability are under active investigation. In this work, we study quantum systems of few qubits collectively modeled as a kicked top, a textbook example of quantum chaos. In particular, we show that the three- and four-qubit cases are exactly solvable and yet, interestingly, can display signatures of ergodicity and thermalization. Deriving analytical expressions for entanglement entropy and concurrence, we see agreement in certain parameter regimes between long-time average values and ensemble averages of random states with permutation symmetry. Comparing with results using the data of a recent transmons-based experiment realizing the three-qubit case, we find agreement for short times, including a peculiar steplike behavior in correlations of some states. In the case of four qubits we point to a precursor of dynamical tunneling between what in the classical limit would be two stable islands. Numerical results for larger number of qubits show the emergence of the classical limit including signatures of a bifurcation.

Out-of-time-ordered correlator in the quantum bakers map and truncated unitary matrices.

The out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC) is a measure of quantum chaos that is being vigorously investigated. Analytically accessible simple models that have long been studied in other contexts could provide insights into such measures. This paper investigates the OTOC in the quantum bakers map which is the quantum version of a simple and exactly solvable model of deterministic chaos that caricatures the action of kneading dough. Exact solutions based on the semiquantum approximation are derived that tracks very well the correlators until the Ehrenfest time. The growth occurs, surprisingly, at the exponential rate of the classical Lyapunov exponent which is half of that expected semiclassically. This exponential growth is modulated by slowly changing coefficients. Beyond this time, saturation occurs at a value close to that of random matrices. Using projectors for observables naturally leads to truncations of the unitary time-t propagator and the growth of their singular values is shown to be intimately related to the growth of the out-of-time-ordered correlators.

Entanglement and localization transitions in eigenstates of interacting chaotic systems.

The entanglement and localization in eigenstates of strongly chaotic subsystems are studied as a function of their interaction strength. Excellent measures for this purpose are the von Neumann entropy, Havrda-Charvát-Tsallis entropies, and the averaged inverse participation ratio. All the entropies are shown to follow a remarkably simple exponential form, which describes a universal and rapid transition to nearly maximal entanglement for increasing interaction strength. An unexpectedly exact relationship between the subsystem averaged inverse participation ratio and purity is derived that prescribes the transition in the localization as well.

Universal Scaling of Spectral Fluctuation Transitions for Interacting Chaotic Systems.

The statistical properties of interacting strongly chaotic systems are investigated for varying interaction strength. In order to model tunable entangling interactions between such systems, we introduce a new class of random matrix transition ensembles. The nearest-neighbor-spacing distribution shows a very sensitive transition from Poisson statistics to those of random matrix theory as the interaction increases. The transition is universal and depends on a single scaling parameter only. We derive the analytic relationship between the model parameters and those of a bipartite system, with explicit results for coupled kicked rotors, a dynamical systems paradigm for interacting chaotic systems. With this relationship the spectral fluctuations for both are in perfect agreement. An accurate approximation of the nearest-neighbor-spacing distribution as a function of the transition parameter is derived using perturbation theory.

Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy of many-body Hamiltonian systems.

The Kolmogorov-Sinai (KS) entropy is a central measure of complexity and chaos. Its calculation for many-body systems is an interesting and important challenge. In this paper, the evaluation is formulated by considering N-dimensional symplectic maps and deriving a transfer matrix formalism for the stability problem. This approach makes explicit a duality relation that is exactly analogous to one found in a generalized Anderson tight-binding model and leads to a formally exact expression for the finite-time KS entropy. Within this formalism there is a hierarchy of approximations, the final one being a diagonal approximation that only makes use of instantaneous Hessians of the potential to find the KS entropy. By way of a nontrivial illustration, the KS entropy of N identically coupled kicked rotors (standard maps) is investigated. The validity of the various approximations with kicking strength, particle number, and time are elucidated. An analytic formula for the KS entropy within the diagonal approximation is derived and its range of validity is also explored.

Fluctuations in classical sum rules.

Classical sum rules arise in a wide variety of physical contexts. Asymptotic expressions have been derived for many of these sum rules in the limit of long orbital period (or large action). Although sum-rule convergence may well be exponentially rapid for chaotic systems in a global phase-space sense with time, individual contributions to the sums may fluctuate with a width which diverges in time. Our interest is in the global convergence of sum rules as well as their local fluctuations. It turns out that a simple version of a lazy baker map gives an ideal system in which classical sum rules, their corrections, and their fluctuations can be worked out analytically. This is worked out in detail for the Hannay-Ozorio sum rule. In this particular case the rate of convergence of the sum rule is found to be governed by the Pollicott-Ruelle resonances, and both local and global boundaries for which the sum rule may converge are given. In addition, the width of the fluctuations is considered and worked out analytically, and it is shown to have an interesting dependence on the location of the region over which the sum rule is applied. It is also found that as the region of application is decreased in size the fluctuations grow. This suggests a way of controlling the length scale of the fluctuations by considering a time dependent phase-space volume, which for the lazy baker map decreases exponentially rapidly with time.

Effect of classical bifurcations on the quantum entanglement of two coupled quartic oscillators.

We study entanglement in a system comprising two coupled quartic oscillators. It is shown that the entanglement, as measured by the von Neumann entropy, increases with the classical chaos parameter for generic chaotic eigenstates. We consider certain isolated periodic orbits whose bifurcation sequence affects a class of strongly scarred quantum eigenstates, called the channel localized states. For these states, the entanglement is a local minima in the vicinity of a pitchfork bifurcation but is a local maxima near an antipitchfork bifurcation. We place these results in the context of the close connections that may exist between entanglement measures and conventional measures of localization. We also point to an interesting near degeneracy that arises in the spectrum of reduced density matrices of certain states as an interplay between localization and symmetry.

Extreme statistics of complex random and quantum chaotic states.

Complex random states have the statistical properties of the Gaussian and circular unitary ensemble eigenstates of random matrix theory. Even though their components are correlated by the normalization constraint, it is nevertheless possible to derive compact analytic formulas for their extreme values' statistical properties for all dimensionalities. The maximum intensity result slowly approaches the Gumbel distribution even though the variables are bounded, whereas the minimum intensity result rapidly approaches the Weibull distribution. Since random matrix theory is conjectured to be applicable to chaotic quantum systems, we calculate the extreme eigenfunction statistics for the standard map with parameters at which its classical map is fully chaotic. The statistical behaviors are consistent with the finite-N formulas.

Fluctuations of finite-time stability exponents in the standard map and the detection of small islands.

Some statistical properties of finite-time stability exponents in the standard map can be estimated analytically. The mean exponent averaged over the entire phase space behaves quite differently from all the other cumulants. Whereas the mean carries information about the strength of the interaction and only indirect information about dynamical correlations, the higher cumulants carry information about dynamical correlations and essentially no information about the interaction strength. In particular, the variance and higher cumulants of the exponent are very sensitive to dynamical correlations and easily detect the presence of very small islands of regular motion via their anomalous time scalings. The average of the stability matrix' inverse trace is even more sensitive to the presence of small islands and has a seemingly fractal behavior in the standard map parameter. The usual accelerator modes and the small islands created through double saddle node bifurcations, which come halfway between the positions in interaction strength of the usual accelerator modes, are clearly visible in the variance, whose time scaling is capable of detecting the presence of islands as small as 0.01% of the phase space. We study these quantities with a local approximation to the trace of the stability matrix which significantly simplifies the numerical calculations as well as allows for generalization of these methods to higher dimensions. We also discuss the nature of this local approximation in some detail.

Quantum chaos in the spectrum of operators used in Shor's algorithm.

We provide compelling evidence for the presence of quantum chaos in the unitary part of the operator usually employed in Shor's factoring algorithm. In particular we analyze the spectrum of this part after proper desymmetrization and show that the fluctuations of the eigenangles as well as the distribution of the eigenvector components follow the circular unitary ensemble of random matrices, of relevance to quantized chaotic systems that violate time-reversal symmetry. However, as the algorithm tracks the evolution of a single state, it is possible to employ other operators; in particular, it is possible that the generic quantum chaos found above becomes of a nongeneric kind such as is found in the quantum cat maps and in toy models of the quantum baker's map.

Multifractal eigenstates of quantum chaos and the Thue-Morse sequence.

We analyze certain eigenstates of the quantum baker's map and demonstrate, using the Walsh-Hadamard transform, the emergence of the ubiquitous Thue-Morse sequence, a simple sequence that is at the border between quasiperiodicity and chaos, and hence is a good paradigm for quantum chaotic states. We show a family of states that are also simply related to the Thue-Morse sequence and are strongly scarred by short periodic orbits and their homoclinic excursions. We give approximate expressions for these states and provide evidence that these and other generic states are multifractal.

Entanglement production in coupled chaotic systems: Case of the kicked tops.

Entanglement production in coupled chaotic systems is studied with the help of kicked tops. Deriving the correct classical map, we have used the reduced Husimi function, the Husimi function of the reduced density matrix, to visualize the possible behaviors of a wave packet. We have studied a phase-space based measure of the complexity of a state and used random matrix theory (RMT) to model the strongly chaotic cases. Extensive numerical studies have been done for the entanglement production in coupled kicked tops corresponding to different underlying classical dynamics and different coupling strengths. An approximate formula, based on RMT, is derived for the entanglement production in coupled strongly chaotic systems. This formula, applicable for arbitrary coupling strengths and also valid for long time, complements and extends significantly recent perturbation theories for strongly chaotic weakly coupled systems.

Recurrence of fidelity in nearly integrable systems.

Within the framework of simple perturbation theory, recurrence time of quantum fidelity is related to the period of the classical motion. This indicates the possibility of recurrence in nearly integrable systems. We have studied such possibility in detail with the kicked rotor as an example. In accordance with the correspondence principle, recurrence is observed when the underlying classical dynamics is well approximated by the harmonic oscillator. Quantum revival of fidelity is noted in the interior of resonances, while classical-quantum correspondence of fidelity is seen to be very short for states initially in the rotational Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser region.