Quantum many-body scars from virtual entangled pairs
Abstract
We study weak ergodicity breaking in a one-dimensional, nonintegrable spin-1 XY model. We construct for it an exact, highly excited eigenstate, which despite its large energy density, can be represented analytically by a finite bond-dimension matrix product state (MPS) with area-law entanglement. Upon a quench to a finite Zeeman field, the state undergoes periodic dynamics with perfect many-body revivals, in stark contrast to other generic initial states which instead rapidly thermalize. This dynamics can be completely understood in terms of the evolution of entangled virtual spin-1/2 degrees of freedom, which in turn underpin the presence of an extensive tower of strong-eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH)-violating many-body eigenstates. The resulting quantum many-body scars are therefore of novel origin. Our results provide important analytical insights into the nature and entanglement structure of quantum many-body scars.
Additional Information
© 2020 American Physical Society. Received 28 October 2019; revised manuscript received 27 April 2020; accepted 29 April 2020; published 18 May 2020. We thank S. Choi for useful discussions and M. Bukov for help with the package QuSpin with which exact diagonalization studies were carried out. This work was supported through the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Center for Ultracold Atoms, DOE. Office of Naval Research and the Vannevar Bush Fellowship. S.C. is supported by the Herschel Smith Undergraduate Program and the Jacob Wendell Scholarship Prize. H.P. was supported by the NSF through a grant for the Institute for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics at Harvard University and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's EPiQS Initiative, Grant No. GBMF8682. W.W.H. is supported by the Moore Foundation's EPiQS Initiative Grant No. GBMF4306 and the National University of Singapore (NUS) Development Grant No. AY2019/2020.Attached Files
Published - PhysRevB.101.174308.pdf
Submitted - 1910.08101.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 103273
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20200518-100503613
- NSF
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- Office of Naval Research (ONR)
- Vannever Bush Faculty Fellowship
- Harvard University
- Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
- GBMF8682
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- GBMF4306
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- AY2019/2020
- National University of Singapore
- Created
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2020-05-18Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field