From single-particle to many-body chaos in the Yukawa-Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model: Theory and a cavity-QED proposal
Year: 2026
Authors: Solis DP., Windey A., Bandyopadhyay S., Legramandi A., Hauke P.
Autors Affiliation: Univ Trento, CNR INO, Pitaevskii BEC Ctr, Via Sommar 14, I-38123 Trento, Italy; Univ Trento, Dept Phys, Via Sommar 14, I-38123 Trento, Italy; Trento Inst Fundamental Phys & Applicat, INFN TIFPA, Via Sommar 14, I-38123 Trento, Italy; Indian Inst Sci Educ & Res Thiruvananthapuram, Sch Phys, Thiruvananthapuram 695551, Kerala, India.
Abstract: Understanding how quantum systems evolve from integrable to fully chaotic behavior remains a central open problem in physics. In this work, we show that the Yukawa-Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (YSYK) model is a particularly rich testbed to address this question. This model extends the paradigmatic SYK model of many-body chaos and holography by introducing boson-mediated random all-to-all fermionic interactions. Using spectral and dynamical chaos markers, we perform a comprehensive numerical characterization tailored to the mesoscopic regime relevant for quantum simulation. We show that, at finite size, the YSYK model interpolates between single-particle and many-body chaos, with the interaction strength acting as a tunable control parameter interpolating between SYK2 and SYK4 behavior. We introduce a framework enabling direct and quantitative comparison with these benchmark models, and we uncover prethermalization plateaus as well as delayed and incomplete scrambling appearing in an intermediate regime that weakly breaks integrability. We further propose a feasible optical-cavity realization of the YSYK model using ultracold atoms, opening the door to studies beyond the capacities of numerical investigations. Our results establish the YSYK model as a benchmark platform connecting single-particle and many-body chaos, and they provide a quantitative reference point for future quantum simulations.
Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW B
Volume: 113 (18) Pages from: 184121-1 to: 184121-25
More Information: We thank Rahel Baumgartner, Rohit Prasad Bhatt, Jean-Philippe Brantut, Lea Dubois, Ekaterina Fedotova, Robin Loewenberg, Francesca Orsi, Pietro Pelliconi, Julian Sonner, and Yi-Neng Zhou for helpful discussions and comments. This project has received funding by the European Union under Horizon Europe Programme (Grant No. 101080086) NeQST and under NextGenerationEU via the ICSC-Centro Nazionale di Ricerca in HPC, Big Data and Quantum Computing. This project has been funded by the Caritro Foundation. This work was supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under Contract No. UeMO19-5.1. This project has received funding from the European Union-Next Generation EU, Mission 4 Component 2-CUP E53D23002240006 and the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) through the FARE grant for the project DAVNE (Grant No. R20PEX7Y3A) and was supported by the Provincia Autonoma di Trento and by Q@TN, the joint laboratory between the University of Trento, FBK-Fondazione Bruno Kessler, INFN-National Institute for Nuclear Physics and CNR-National Research Council. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.KeyWords: Statistical-mechanics; Quantum; Thermalization; ErgodicityDOI: 10.1103/wntd-53rd
