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Onset of Random Matrix Behavior in Scrambling Systems

3 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

3 Pith papers citing it
abstract

The fine grained energy spectrum of quantum chaotic systems is widely believed to be described by random matrix statistics. A basic scale in such a system is the energy range over which this behavior persists. We define the corresponding time scale by the time at which the linearly growing ramp region in the spectral form factor begins. We call this time $t_{\rm ramp}$. The purpose of this paper is to study this scale in many-body quantum systems that display strong chaos, sometimes called scrambling systems. We focus on randomly coupled qubit systems, both local and $k$-local (all-to-all interactions) and the Sachdev--Ye--Kitaev (SYK) model. Using numerical results for Hamiltonian systems and analytic estimates for random quantum circuits we find the following results. For geometrically local systems with a conservation law we find $t_{\rm ramp}$ is determined by the diffusion time across the system, order $N^2$ for a 1D chain of $N$ qubits. This is analogous to the behavior found for local one-body chaotic systems. For a $k$-local system with conservation law the time is order $\log N$ but with a different prefactor and a different mechanism than the scrambling time. In the absence of any conservation laws, as in a generic random quantum circuit, we find $t_{\rm ramp} \sim \log N$, independent of connectivity.

years

2026 2 2024 1

verdicts

UNVERDICTED 3

representative citing papers

Chaos of Berry curvature for BPS microstates

hep-th · 2026-04-25 · unverdicted · novelty 7.0

Berry curvature of BPS states is random-matrix-like for supersymmetric black hole microstates but non-random and often zero for horizonless geometries, offering a chaos diagnostic in degenerate sectors.

Generic ETH: Eigenstate Thermalization beyond the Microcanonical

quant-ph · 2024-03-08 · unverdicted · novelty 5.0

Numerical study of a qutrit lattice with conserved charge shows thermalization signatures in states outside microcanonical windows of energy and charge, supporting a generalized form of ETH called generic ETH.

citing papers explorer

Showing 3 of 3 citing papers.

  • Chaos of Berry curvature for BPS microstates hep-th · 2026-04-25 · unverdicted · none · ref 108

    Berry curvature of BPS states is random-matrix-like for supersymmetric black hole microstates but non-random and often zero for horizonless geometries, offering a chaos diagnostic in degenerate sectors.

  • Chaos-Integrability Transition in the BPS Subspace of the $\mathcal{N}=2$ SYK Model hep-th · 2026-05-20 · unverdicted · none · ref 26 · internal anchor

    Numerical analysis shows that spectral statistics of a BPS-projected operator in an interpolating N=2 SYK model transition from random-matrix to Poisson behavior as the model moves from chaotic to integrable.

  • Generic ETH: Eigenstate Thermalization beyond the Microcanonical quant-ph · 2024-03-08 · unverdicted · none · ref 56 · internal anchor

    Numerical study of a qutrit lattice with conserved charge shows thermalization signatures in states outside microcanonical windows of energy and charge, supporting a generalized form of ETH called generic ETH.