Scaling of level statistics at the disorder-induced metal-insulator transition

Thouless Time Analysis of Anderson and Many-Body Localization Transitions

Spectral statistics of disordered systems encode Thouless and Heisenberg timescales, whose ratio determines whether the system is chaotic or localized. We show that the scaling of the Thouless time with the system size and disorder strength is very similar in one-body Anderson models and in disordered quantum many-body systems. We argue that the two parameter scaling breaks down in the vicinity of the transition to the localized phase, signaling a slowing-down of dynamics.

Statistical crossover characterization of the heterotic localized-extended transition

We investigated the spectral statistics of a quantum particle in a superlattice consisting of a disordered layer and a clean layer, possibly accompanied by random magnetic fields. Because a disordered layer has localized states and a clean layer has extended states, our quantum system shows a heterotic phase of an Anderson insulator and a normal metal. As the ratio of the volume of these two layers changes, the spectral statistics change from Poissonian to one of the Gaussian ensembles which characterize quantum chaos. A crossover distribution specified by two parameters is introduced to distinguish the transition from an integrable system to a quantum chaotic system during the heterotic phase from an Anderson transition in which the degree of random potentials is homogenous.

Chaos and the quantum phase transition in the Dicke model

We investigate the quantum-chaotic properties of the Dicke Hamiltonian; a quantum-optical model that describes a single-mode bosonic field interacting with an ensemble of N two-level atoms. This model exhibits a zero-temperature quantum phase transition in the N --> infinity limit, which we describe exactly in an effective Hamiltonian approach. We then numerically investigate the system at finite N, and by analyzing the level statistics, we demonstrate that the system undergoes a transition from quasi-integrability to quantum chaotic, and that this transition is caused by the precursors of the quantum phase transition. Our considerations of the wave function indicate that this is connected with a delocalization of the system and the emergence of macroscopic coherence. We also derive a semiclassical Dicke model that exhibits analogues of all the important features of the quantum model, such as the phase transition and the concurrent onset of chaos.

Quantum chaos triggered by precursors of a quantum phase transition: the dicke model

We consider the Dicke Hamiltonian, a simple quantum-optical model which exhibits a zero-temperature quantum phase transition. We present numerical results demonstrating that at this transition the system changes from being quasi-integrable to quantum chaotic. By deriving an exact solution in the thermodynamic limit we relate this phenomenon to a localization-delocalization transition in which a macroscopic superposition is generated. We also describe the classical analogs of this behavior.