Single-quasiparticle eigenstate thermalization

TL;DR

This paper extends the concept of eigenstate thermalization to single-quasiparticle states in U(1)-breaking quantum-chaotic quadratic Hamiltonians, analyzing wave functions, matrix elements, and equilibration after quenches.

Contribution

It introduces the notion of single-quasiparticle eigenstate thermalization for U(1)-breaking Hamiltonians and studies their properties through numerical and analytical methods.

Findings

Single-quasiparticle eigenstates exhibit thermalization properties.

Disorder-induced zero modes create a peak in the density of states.

Observables equilibrate after quantum quenches, explained by eigenstate thermalization.

Abstract

Quadratic Hamiltonians that exhibit single-particle quantum chaos are called quantum-chaotic quadratic Hamiltonians. One of their hallmarks is single-particle eigenstate thermalization introduced in Phys. Rev. B 104, 214203 (2021), which describes statistical properties of matrix elements of observables in single-particle eigenstates. However, the latter has been studied only in quantum-chaotic quadratic Hamiltonians that obey the U(1) symmetry. Here, we focus on quantum-chaotic quadratic Hamiltonians that break the U(1) symmetry and, hence, their "single-particle" eigenstates are actually single-quasiparticle excitations introduced on the top of a many-body state. We study their wave functions and matrix elements of one-body observables, for which we introduce the notion of single-quasiparticle eigenstate thermalization. Focusing on spinless fermion Hamiltonians in three dimensions with local hopping, pairing and on-site disorder, we also study the properties of disorder-induced near zero modes, which give rise to a sharp peak in the density of states at zero energy. Finally, we numerically show equilibration of observables in many-body eigenstates after a quantum quench. We analytically prove that it is a consequence of single-quasiparticle eigenstate thermalization, in analogy to the U(1) symmetric case from Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 060401 (2023).