Orthogonal Quantum Many-Body Scars

Zhao, Hongzheng; Smith, Adam; Mintert, Florian; Knolle, Johannes

Abstract

Quantum many-body scars have been put forward as counterexamples to the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. These atypical states are observed in a range of correlated models as long-lived oscillations of local observables in quench experiments starting from selected initial states. The long-time memory is a manifestation of quantum nonergodicity generally linked to a subextensive generation of entanglement entropy, the latter of which is widely used as a diagnostic for identifying quantum many-body scars numerically as low entanglement outliers. Here we show that by adding kinetic constraints to a fractionalized orthogonal metal, we can construct a minimal model with orthogonal quantum many-body scars leading to persistent oscillations with infinite lifetime coexisting with rapid volume-law entanglement generation. Our example provides new insights into the link between quantum ergodicity and many-body entanglement while opening new avenues for exotic nonequilibrium dynamics in strongly correlated multicomponent quantum systems.

Citation

Zhao, H., Smith, A., Mintert, F., & Knolle, J. (2021). Orthogonal Quantum Many-Body Scars. Physical Review Letters, 127(15), Article 150601. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.150601

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 16, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Oct 6, 2021
• Publication Date: Oct 8, 2021
• Deposit Date: Mar 21, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 22, 2022
• Journal: Physical Review Letters
• Print ISSN: 0031-9007
• Electronic ISSN: 1079-7114
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 127
• Issue: 15
• Article Number: 150601
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.150601
• Keywords: General Physics and Astronomy
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7616829
• Publisher URL: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.150601