Nonequilibrium quantum order at infinite temperature: spatiotemporal correlations and their generating functions

Abstract

Localisation-protected quantum order extends the idea of symmetry breaking and order in ground states to individual eigenstates at arbitrary energy. Examples include many-body localised static and $\pi$-spin glasses in Floquet systems. Such order is inherently dynamical and difficult to detect as the order parameter typically varies randomly between different eigenstates, requiring specific superpositions of eigenstates to be targeted by the initial state. We show that two-time correlators overcome this, reflecting the presence or absence of eigenstate order even in fully-mixed, $infinite$ $temperature$ states. We show how spatiotemporal correlators are generated by the recently introduced dynamical potentials, demonstrating this explicitly using an Ising and a Floquet $\pi$-spin glass and focusing on features mirroring those of equilibrium statistical mechanics such as bimodal potentials in the symmetry-broken phase.