Floquet engineered inhomogeneous quantum chaos in critical systems

TL;DR

This paper explores how periodic driving induces inhomogeneous quantum chaos in critical systems modeled by conformal field theories, linking chaos onset to emergent Floquet horizons and proposing a protocol for measuring OTOCs in quantum simulators.

Contribution

It introduces a curved spacetime approach to analyze inhomogeneous quantum chaos and connects the Lyapunov exponent to Floquet horizon temperature, with a practical measurement protocol.

Findings

Chaos onset linked to Hawking temperature of Floquet horizons

Quantum information scrambling is spatially inhomogeneous

Proposes a protocol for measuring OTOCs in quantum simulators

Abstract

We study universal chaotic dynamics of a large class of periodically driven critical systems described by spatially inhomogeneous conformal field theories. By employing an effective curved spacetime approach, we show that the onset of quantum chaotic correlations, captured by the Lyapunov exponent of out-of-time-order correlators (OTOCs), is set by the Hawking temperature of emergent Floquet horizons. Furthermore, scrambling of quantum information is shown to be strongly inhomogeneous, leading to transitions from chaotic to non-chaotic regimes by tuning driving parameters. We finally use our framework to propose a concrete protocol to simulate and measure OTOCs in quantum simulators, by designing an efficient stroboscopic backward time evolution.