Operator growth bounds from graph theory

Abstract

Let $A$ and $B$ be local operators in Hamiltonian quantum systems with $N$ degrees of freedom and finite-dimensional Hilbert space. We prove that the commutator norm $\Vert [A(t),B]\Vert$ is upper bounded by a topological combinatorial problem: counting irreducible weighted paths between two points on the Hamiltonian's factor graph. Our bounds sharpen existing Lieb-Robinson bounds by removing extraneous growth. In quantum systems drawn from zero-mean random ensembles with few-body interactions, we prove stronger bounds on the ensemble-averaged out-of-time-ordered correlator $\mathbb{E}\left[\Vert [A(t),B]{\Vert }_F^2\right]$. In such quantum systems on Erdös-Rényi factor graphs, we prove that the scrambling time $t_{\mathrm{s}}$, at which $|[A(t),B]{\Vert }_F=\mathrm{\Theta }(1)$, is almost surely $t_{\mathrm{s}}=\mathrm{\Omega }(\sqrt{\log N})$; we further prove $t_{\mathrm{s}}=\mathrm{\Omega }(\log N)$ to high order in perturbation theory in $1/N$. We constrain infinite temperature quantum chaos in the $q$-local Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model at any order in $1/N$; at leading order, our upper bound on the Lyapunov exponent is within a factor of 2 of the known result at any $q>2$. We also speculate on the implications of our theorems for conjectured holographic descriptions of quantum gravity.

arXiv comment49 pages, 14 figures. v2: published version with errors fixed

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