IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar

Abstract: Many-body quantum scars states are outlier eigenstates: they have local expectation values that are very different from those of eigenstates at surrounding energies. Quantum scars are responsible for initial-state dependence of thermalization, and a number of symmetry-based constructions for scarred Hamiltonians have been proposed. One of the most striking features of the model that was originally experimentally explored is non-monotonicity of entanglement entropy in time when initializing from scar superpositions. However, a quick survey of the theoretical literature shows that for a majority of proposed scarred models, including those proposed by the speaker, entanglement entropies of superpositions of quantum scar states are strictly independent of time. What causes this entanglement freezing? Is there a fundamental difference between models with entanglement oscillations and those with entanglement freezing? I will present a collaboration with Adithya Sriram from Stanford University that investigates these questions, https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.210402.

Following the talk, lunch will be provided on the lawn outside East Bridge.