Probing Operator Spreading with Local Quantum Fluctuations

Abstract

Measuring out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs) is experimentally challenging, often requiring effective reversal of many-body dynamics. Here, we propose an alternative approach to probing operator spreading through local quantum fluctuations, using only forward evolution and local measurements. Motivated by the Heisenberg uncertainty relation, we introduce a differential local variance and establish a rigorous bound connecting it to operator noncommutativity. For a ferromagnetic Heisenberg chain in the single-magnon regime, we derive an exact relation between the local variance and a squared-commutator OTOC. In integrable and nonintegrable Ising chains, the differential variance and OTOCs reveal qualitatively consistent propagation fronts. Our results establish local quantum fluctuations as an experimentally accessible, state-dependent, and complementary diagnostic of operator spreading.