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Interacting quantum systems in the chaotic domain are at the core of various ongoing studies of many-body physics, ranging from the scrambling of quantum information to the onset of thermalization. We propose a minimum model for chaos that can be experimentally realized with cold atoms trapped in one-dimensional multi-well potentials. We explore the emergence of chaos as the number of particles is increased, starting with as few as two, and as the number of wells is increased, ranging from a double well to a multi-well Kronig-Penney-like system. In this way, we illuminate the narrow boundary between integrability and chaos in a highly tunable few-body system. We show that the competition between the particle interactions and the periodic structure of the confining potential reveals subtle indications of quantum chaos for 3 particles, while for 4 particles stronger signatures are seen. The analysis is performed for bosonic particles and could also be extended to distinguishable fermions.
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This content will become publicly available on March 25, 2026
Tensor Product Structure Geometry under Unitary Channels
In quantum many-body systems, complex dynamics delocalize the physical degrees of freedom. This spreading of information throughout the system has been extensively studied in relation to quantum thermalization, scrambling, and chaos. Locality is typically defined with respect to a tensor product structure (TPS) which identifies the local subsystems of the quantum system. In this paper, we investigate a simple geometric measure of operator spreading by quantifying the distance of the space of local operators from itself evolved under a unitary channel. We show that this TPS distance is related to the scrambling properties of the dynamics between the local subsystems and coincides with the entangling power of the dynamics in the case of a symmetric bipartition. Additionally, we provide sufficient conditions for the maximization of the TPS distance and show that the class of 2-unitaries provides examples of dynamics that achieve this maximal value. For Hamiltonian evolutions at short times, the characteristic timescale of the TPS distance depends on scrambling rates determined by the strength of interactions between the local subsystems. Beyond this short-time regime, the behavior of the TPS distance is explored through numerical simulations of prototypical models exhibiting distinct ergodic properties, ranging from quantum chaos and integrability to Hilbert space fragmentation and localization.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2310227
- PAR ID:
- 10593095
- Publisher / Repository:
- Quantum, the open journal for quantum science
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Quantum
- Volume:
- 9
- ISSN:
- 2521-327X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1668
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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