Effects of topological and non-topological edge states on information propagation and scrambling in a Floquet spin chain

Abstract

The action of any local operator on a quantum system propagates through the system carrying the information of the operator. This is usually studied via the out-of-time-order correlator (OTOC). We numerically study the information propagation from one end of a periodically driven spin-1/2 XY chain with open boundary conditions using the Floquet infinite-temperature OTOC. We calculate the OTOC for two different spin operators, σ x and σ z . For sinusoidal driving, the model can be shown to host different types of edge states, namely, topological (Majorana) edge states and non-topological edge states. We observe a localization of information at the edge for both σ z and σ x OTOCs whenever edge states are present. In addition, in the case of non-topological edge states, we see oscillations of the OTOC in time near the edge, the oscillation period being inversely proportional to the gap between the Floquet eigenvalues of the edge states. We provide an analytical understanding of these effects due to the edge states. It was known earlier that the OTOC for the spin operator which is local in terms of Jordan–Wigner fermions (σ z ) shows no signature of information scrambling inside the light cone of propagation, while the OTOC for the spin operator which is non-local in terms of Jordan–Wigner fermions (σ x ) shows signatures of scrambling. We report a remarkable ‘unscrambling effect’ in the σ x OTOC after reflections from the ends of the system. Finally, we demonstrate that the information propagates into the system mainly via the bulk states with the maximum value of the group velocity, and we show how this velocity is controlled by the driving frequency and amplitude.