TY - JOUR
T1 - Velocity-dependent Lyapunov exponents in many-body quantum, semiclassical, and classical chaos
AU - Khemani, Vedika
AU - Huse, David A.
AU - Nahum, Adam
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Physical Society.
PY - 2018/10/16
Y1 - 2018/10/16
N2 - The exponential growth or decay with time of the out-of-time-order commutator (OTOC) is one widely used diagnostic of many-body chaos in spatially extended systems. In studies of many-body classical chaos, it has been noted that one can define a velocity-dependent Lyapunov exponent, λ(v), which is the growth or decay rate along rays at that velocity. We examine the behavior of λ(v) for a variety of many-body systems, both chaotic and integrable. The so-called light cone for the spreading of operators is defined by λ(nvB(n))=0, with a generally direction-dependent butterfly speed vB(n). In spatially local systems, λ(v) is negative outside the light cone where it takes the form λ(v)∼-(v-vB)α near vB, with the exponent α taking on various values over the range of systems we examine. The regime inside the light cone with positive Lyapunov exponents may only exist for classical, semiclassical, or large-N systems, but not for "fully quantum" chaotic systems with strong short-range interactions and local Hilbert space dimensions of order one.
AB - The exponential growth or decay with time of the out-of-time-order commutator (OTOC) is one widely used diagnostic of many-body chaos in spatially extended systems. In studies of many-body classical chaos, it has been noted that one can define a velocity-dependent Lyapunov exponent, λ(v), which is the growth or decay rate along rays at that velocity. We examine the behavior of λ(v) for a variety of many-body systems, both chaotic and integrable. The so-called light cone for the spreading of operators is defined by λ(nvB(n))=0, with a generally direction-dependent butterfly speed vB(n). In spatially local systems, λ(v) is negative outside the light cone where it takes the form λ(v)∼-(v-vB)α near vB, with the exponent α taking on various values over the range of systems we examine. The regime inside the light cone with positive Lyapunov exponents may only exist for classical, semiclassical, or large-N systems, but not for "fully quantum" chaotic systems with strong short-range interactions and local Hilbert space dimensions of order one.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevB.98.144304
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevB.98.144304
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85055120720
SN - 2469-9950
VL - 98
JO - Physical Review B
JF - Physical Review B
IS - 14
M1 - 144304
ER -