Finite-size geometric crossover toward fragmentation of the potential energy shell in the quantum random energy model

Abstract

The quantum random energy model (QREM) is a paradigmatic model for studying delocalization-localization transitions at finite energy density in Fock space. In the computational basis, its diagonal energies are independent Gaussian random variables, in contrast to the correlated energies of local interacting models such as the disordered XXZ chain. In this work, we construct a potential energy shell associated with a basis state, defined through its energy variance, and investigate its connectivity on the Fock-space hypercube. As the transverse field is varied, this energy-selected subgraph undergoes a finite-size geometric crossover between fully connected and fragmented regimes. Furthermore, we observe a correlation between the shell connectivity and the finite-size fractal dimension of the eigenstates, as extracted from the participation entropy. For the QREM, the statistical independence of the diagonal energies allows the shell connectivity to be analyzed as an effective independent site percolation problem on the hypercube, with its crossover scale estimated within a one-hop approximation. At finite energy density, this estimate gives a nonmonotonic dependence of the crossover scale on system size $L$: increasing $L$ initially favors connectivity, while beyond an energy-dependent scale $L^*(\varepsilon)$ the trend reverses towards fragmentation.