Distance to integrability and complexity

Abstract

We consider nearest-neighbour interactions on spin-1/2 chains. We find the full set of integrable models of this form and apply a numerical algorithm to determine the "closest" integrable model for a given Hamiltonian. This allows us to define a model-independent distance to integrability. We show that standard measures of chaos interpolate between integrable and chaotic values with increasing values of this distance. However, there is a large variation across models and the distance to integrability provides additional information not directly provided by these diagnostics.

arXiv comment8 pages, 4 figures