Entanglement distribution in the quantum symmetric simple exclusion process

Impact of Dissipation on Universal Fluctuation Dynamics in Open Quantum Systems

Recent theoretical and experimental works have explored universal dynamics related to surface growth physics in isolated quantum systems. In this Letter, we theoretically elucidate that dissipation drastically alters universal particle-number-fluctuation dynamics associated with surface-roughness growth in one-dimensional free fermions and bosons. In a system under dephasing that causes loss of spatial coherence, we numerically find that a universality class of surface-roughness dynamics changes from the ballistic class to a class with the Edwards-Wilkinson scaling exponents and an unconventional scaling function. We provide the analytical derivation of the diffusion equation from the dephasing Lindblad equation via a renormalization-group technique and succeed in explaining the drastic change. Furthermore, we numerically find the same change of the universality class under a more nontrivial dissipation, i.e., symmetric incoherent hopping.

Tight-binding billiards

Recent works have established universal entanglement properties and demonstrated validity of single-particle eigenstate thermalization in quantum-chaotic quadratic Hamiltonians. However, a common property of all quantum-chaotic quadratic Hamiltonians studied in this context so far is the presence of random terms that act as a source of disorder. Here we introduce tight-binding billiards in two dimensions, which are described by noninteracting spinless fermions on a disorder-free square lattice subject to curved open (hard-wall) boundaries. We show that many properties of tight-binding billiards match those of quantum-chaotic quadratic Hamiltonians: The average entanglement entropy of many-body eigenstates approaches the random matrix theory predictions and one-body observables in single-particle eigenstates obey the single-particle eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. On the other hand, a degenerate subset of single-particle eigenstates at zero energy (i.e., the zero modes) can be described as chiral particles whose wave functions are confined to one of the sublattices.