Signatures of Randomness in Quantum Chaos

Abstract

We investigate toy dynamical models of energy-level repulsion in quantum eigenvalue sequences. We focus on parametric (with respect to a running coupling or "complexity" parameter) stochastic processes that are capable of relaxing towards a stationary regime (e. g. equilibrium, invariant asymptotic measure). In view of ergodic property, that makes them appropriate for the study of short-range fluctuations in any disordered, randomly-looking spectral sequence (as exemplified e. g. by empirical nearest-neighbor spacings histograms of various quantum systems). The pertinent Markov diffusion-type processes (with values in the space of spacings) share a general form of forward drifts $b(x) = {{N-1}\over {2x}} - x$, where $x>0$ stands for the spacing value. Here $N = 2,3,5$ correspond to the familiar (generic) random-matrix theory inspired cases, based on the exploitation of the Wigner surmise (usually regarded as an approximate formula). N=4 corresponds to the (non-generic) non-Hermitian Ginibre ensemble. The result appears to be exact in the context of $2\times 2$ random matrices and indicates a potential validity of other non-generic $N>5$ level repulsion laws.