Out-of-equilibrium Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis

L Foini, A Dymarsky, S Pappalardi - arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.04684, 2024 - arxiv.org
arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.04684, 2024arxiv.org
Understanding how out-of-equilibrium states thermalize under quantum unitary dynamics is
an important problem in many-body physics. In this work, we propose a statistical ansatz for
the matrix elements of non-equilibrium initial states in the energy eigenbasis. The approach
is inspired by the Eigenstate Thermalisation Hypothesis (ETH) but the proposed ansatz
exhibits different scaling. Importantly, exponentially small cross-correlations between the
observable and the initial state matrix elements determine relaxation dynamics toward …
Understanding how out-of-equilibrium states thermalize under quantum unitary dynamics is an important problem in many-body physics. In this work, we propose a statistical ansatz for the matrix elements of non-equilibrium initial states in the energy eigenbasis. The approach is inspired by the Eigenstate Thermalisation Hypothesis (ETH) but the proposed ansatz exhibits different scaling. Importantly, exponentially small cross-correlations between the observable and the initial state matrix elements determine relaxation dynamics toward equilibrium. We numerically verify scaling and cross-correlation, point out the emergent universality of the high-frequency behavior, and outline possible generalizations.
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