Eigenstate thermalization hypothesis in quantum dimer models

Lan, Zhihao; Powell, Stephen

Abstract

We use exact diagonalization to study the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) in the quantum dimer model on the square and triangular lattices. Due to the nonergodicity of the local plaquette-ip dynamics, the Hilbert space, which consists of highly constrained close-packed dimer configurations, splits into sectors characterized by topological invariants. We show that this has important consequences for ETH: We find that ETH is clearly satisfied only when each topological sector is treated separately, and only for moderate ratios of the potential and kinetic terms in the Hamiltonian. By contrast, when the spectrum is treated as a whole, ETH breaks down on the square lattice, and apparently also on the triangular lattice. These results demonstrate that quantum dimer models have interesting thermalization dynamics that has not previously been studied.

Citation

Lan, Z., & Powell, S. (in press). Eigenstate thermalization hypothesis in quantum dimer models. Physical Review B, 96(11), https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.115140

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 7, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Sep 21, 2017
• Deposit Date: Sep 11, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 21, 2017
• Journal: Physical Review B
• Print ISSN: 2469-9950
• Electronic ISSN: 2469-9969
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 96
• Issue: 11
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.115140
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/883632
• Publisher URL: https://journals.aps.org/prb/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.115140
• Related Public URLs: https://rdmc.nottingham.ac.uk/handle/internal/331
• Additional Information: © American Physical Society