Symmetry Classification and Universality in Non-Hermitian Many-Body Quantum Chaos by the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Model

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that non-Hermitian many-body quantum systems, modeled by the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model, exhibit universal spectral correlation features described by random matrix theory, revealing a rich classification of universality classes.

Contribution

It identifies and classifies 19 out of 38 non-Hermitian universality classes in the nHSYK model, extending the understanding of quantum chaos beyond Hermitian systems.

Findings

Spectral correlations match random matrix theory for q > 2

Poisson statistics for q = 2

Explicit realization of 14 universality classes beyond Ginibre ensembles

Abstract

Spectral correlations are a powerful tool to study the dynamics of quantum many-body systems. For Hermitian Hamiltonians, quantum chaotic motion is related to random matrix theory spectral correlations. Based on recent progress in the application of spectral analysis to non-Hermitian quantum systems, we show that local level statistics, which probe the dynamics around the Heisenberg time, of a non-Hermitian $q$-body Sachdev-Ye-Kitev (nHSYK) model with $N$ Majorana fermions, and its chiral and complex-fermion extensions, are also well described by random matrix theory for $q > 2$, while for $q = 2$, they are given by the equivalent of Poisson statistics. For that comparison, we combine exact diagonalization numerical techniques with analytical results obtained for some of the random matrix spectral observables. Moreover, depending on $q$ and $N$, we identify $19$ out of the $38$ non-Hermitian universality classes in the nHSYK model, including those corresponding to the tenfold way. In particular, we realize explicitly $14$ out of the $15$ universality classes corresponding to non-pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians that involve universal bulk correlations of classes ${\rm AI}^\dagger$ and ${\rm AII}^\dagger$, beyond the Ginibre ensembles. These results provide strong evidence of striking universal features in non-unitary many-body quantum chaos, which in all cases can be captured by nHSYK models with $q > 2$.