Condensed Matter Theory Seminar | April 11, 11:00
On the origin of quantum many-body scars in Rydberg blockade systems and beyond
The recent observation of surprisingly long-lasting oscillations in the dynamics of a highly excited states of Rydberg atoms has attracted a lot of interest, as they defy the expectation that interacting systems should thermalize very quickly. The observed phenomena are reminiscent of “scars” that occur in quantum chaotic billiards, where single particle eigenfunctions retain traces of periodic classical orbits. Meanwhile a large number of models has been found that host one or several towers of special (non-thermal) eigenstates whose exactly equidistant eigen-energies ensure periodic, non-thermalizing motion.
In this talk I will discuss the unifying principles governing the solvable models and show how the (non-solvable) Rydberg chain fits into this framework. I further discuss a potential connection of the special ‘scar’ states of Rydberg chains with single particle scars in quantum billiards. I will show that there is a natural classical limit of the Rydberg system that features unexpectedly stable periodic orbits, that act as islands of parametrically suppressed chaos in the semiclassical limit. This opens a new perspective on the limits of quantum chaoticity in the many body-context.
PSI
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Contact: Silvia Pappalardi