Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis with projective representation

Abstract

The Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH) provides a sufficient condition for thermalization of isolated quantum systems. While the standard ETH is formulated in the absence of degeneracy, physical systems often possess symmetries that induce degenerate energy eigenstates. In this paper, we investigate ETH in the presence of nontrivial projective representations of Abelian symmetries, which arise naturally from 't~Hooft anomalies. We argue that such projective structures can lead to degenerate excited states, and how the ETH can be formulated under such degeneracies. In the presence of projective charges supplied by symmetry operators, our projective-representation ETH indicates that the stationary values of the operators are described by the generalized Gibbs ensemble instead of the standard Gibbs ensemble. Our findings elucidate the role of symmetry and degeneracy in quantum thermalization and pave the way for further exploration of the ETH in anomalous symmetry settings.