Eigenstate thermalization hypothesis in quantum dimer models

Zhihao Lan and Stephen Powell
Phys. Rev. B 96, 115140 – Published 21 September 2017

Abstract

We use exact diagonalization to study the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) in the quantum dimer model on the square and triangular lattices. Due to the nonergodicity of the local plaquette-flip dynamics, the Hilbert space, which consists of highly constrained close-packed dimer configurations, splits into sectors characterized by topological invariants. We show that this has important consequences for ETH: We find that ETH is clearly satisfied only when each topological sector is treated separately, and only for moderate ratios of the potential and kinetic terms in the Hamiltonian. By contrast, when the spectrum is treated as a whole, ETH breaks down on the square lattice and, apparently, also on the triangular lattice. These results demonstrate that quantum dimer models have interesting thermalization dynamics.

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  • Received 27 June 2017
  • Revised 7 August 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.115140

©2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Statistical Physics & ThermodynamicsCondensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Zhihao Lan and Stephen Powell

  • Centre for the Mathematics and Theoretical Physics of Quantum Nonequilibrium Systems and School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom

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Issue

Vol. 96, Iss. 11 — 15 September 2017

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