Rigorous Bounds on Eigenstate Thermalization
Abstract
The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH), which asserts that every eigenstate of a many-body quantum system is indistinguishable from a thermal ensemble, plays a pivotal role in understanding thermalization of isolated quantum systems. Yet, no evidence has been obtained as to whether the ETH holds for $\textit{any}$ few-body operators in a chaotic system; such few-body operators include crucial quantities in statistical mechanics, e.g., the total magnetization, the momentum distribution, and their low-order thermal and quantum fluctuations. Here, we identify rigorous upper and lower bounds on $m_{\ast}$ such that $\textit{all}$ $m$-body operators with $m < m_{\ast}$ satisfy the ETH in fully chaotic systems. For arbitrary dimensional $N$-particle systems subject to the Haar measure, we prove that there exist $N$-independent positive constants ${\alpha}_L$ and ${\alpha}_U$ such that ${\alpha}_L \leq m_{\ast} / N \leq {\alpha}_U$ holds. The bounds ${\alpha}_L$ and ${\alpha}_U$ depend only on the spin quantum number for spin systems and the particle-number density for Bose and Fermi systems. Thermalization of $\textit{typical}$ systems for $\textit{any}$ few-body operators is thus rigorously proved.
- Publication:
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arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- March 2023
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.2303.10069
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2303.10069
- Bibcode:
- 2023arXiv230310069S
- Keywords:
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- Condensed Matter - Statistical Mechanics;
- Quantum Physics
- E-Print:
- 8 pages, 1 figure (Supplemental Material: 20 pages)