Rescaled Mandelstam Tamm characterization of discrete time crystal response in a disordered Floquet Ising chain

Abstract

For pure state unitary dynamics, the Mandelstam Tamm (MT) lower-bound functional compares the endpoint Fubini Study return angle with path averaged energy dispersion. Their distinct size and temporal dependences obscure the origin of period two MT structure in discrete time crystal (DTC) like dynamics and its relation to the spin response. For binary Floquet drives, we derive an exact segment resolved MT expression without assuming commuting segment Hamiltonians and apply it to a disordered Floquet Ising chain. Absolute and uniform summability of connected covariances of local energy terms implies an $O(\sqrt{L})$ upper bound on the path-averaged energy dispersion. Endpoint data for four system sizes are consistent with this leading behavior and support the corresponding rescaling of the MT functional. At a representative point in the finite-size region with a locked spin response, odd and even rescaled MT branches remain separated throughout the $10^2$ period observation window. The return angle alternates strongly, whereas the size-normalized path-averaged energy dispersion shows little discernible parity dependence, indicating that endpoint geometry is the main source of the branch splitting. Across the interacting parameter grid, the period-two MT component has a strong partial Spearman rank correlation with the locked spin response after controlling for pulse error and interaction strength. The rescaled MT functional characterizes the global return geometry of finite-size period-two dynamics and quantifies its association with the locked spin response.