Quantum scars as embeddings of weakly broken Lie algebra representations

Abstract

We present an interpretation of scar states and quantum revivals as weakly "broken" representations of Lie algebras spanned by a subset of eigenstates of a many-body quantum system. We show that the PXP model, describing strongly-interacting Rydberg atoms, supports a "loose" embedding of multiple $\mathrm{su(2)}$ Lie algebras corresponding to distinct families of scarred eigenstates. Moreover, we demonstrate that these embeddings can be made progressively more accurate via an iterative process which results in optimal perturbations that stabilize revivals from arbitrary charge density wave product states, $|\mathbb{Z}_n\rangle$, including ones that show no revivals in the unperturbed PXP model. We discuss the relation between the loose embeddings of Lie algebras present in the PXP model and recent exact constructions of scarred states in related models.