Signatures of spectral crossovers in the short- and long-range spectral correlations of a disordered spin-chain with Kramers degeneracy

Abstract

We investigate several distinct spectral crossovers amongst various integrable (Poissonian) and quantum-chaotic (Wigner-Dyson) limits of a $1\mathrm{D}$ disordered quantum spin ($\mathrm{S}=1/2$) model, by tuning the relative amplitudes of various Hamiltonian parameters to retain or break relevant unitary and antiunitary symmetries. The spin model consists of an isotropic and deterministic Heisenberg term, a random Ising term, an anisotropic and antisymmetric, but deterministic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) term, and a Zeeman coupling to a random, inhomogeneous magnetic field. Since we are specially interested in crossovers involving a Gaussian symplectic ensemble (GSE) limit, we carry out all our calculations with an odd number of lattice sites (spins) that naturally results in eigenspectra with Kramers degeneracies (KD's). The various crossovers (viz., the reentrant Poissonian-to-GSE-to-Poissonian, Poissonian-to-GUE, GSE-to-GUE and the reentrant Poissonian-to-GOE-to-Poissonian crossovers) are investigated via detailed studies of both short-range (nearest-neighbour-spacings distribution, NNSD) and long-range [spectral rigidity ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}}_{3}(L)$ and number variance ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}}^{2}(L)$ ] spectral correlations, where $L$ is the spectral interval over which the long-range statistic is examined. The short-range studies show excellent agreement with RMT predictions. One of the highlights of this study is the systematic investigation of the consequences of retaining both eigenvalues corresponding to every Kramers doublet, in a crossover involving the GSE limit, and see how it evolves to a limit where the KD is naturally lifted. This is seen most clearly in the NNSD study of the GSE-to-GUE (Gaussian unitary ensemble) transition, achieved by gradually lifting the KD, using the random magnetic field. The NNSD plot in the GSE limit here exhibits a Dirac delta peak at zero splitting and a renormalized GSE hump at finite splitting, whose general analytical form and its asymptotic limit are derived. With an increasing symmetry breaking magnetic field the NNSD shows an interesting, dynamic two-peaked structure that finally converges to the standard GUE lineshape. We explain this trend in terms of a competition between the splittings amongst distinct Kramers doublets (related to unitary symmetries) and the Zeeman-like splittings induced by a breaking of the antiunitary time-reversal symmetry (TRS). This is investigated via the NNSD, the marginal spectral density (MSD) and the densities of states (DOS) for both spin models and RMT crossover matrix models. The first and the final short-range studies involve reentrant Poissonian-to-GOE(GSE)-to-Poissonian crossovers, where the final Poissonian is obtained by a many-body localization of states in the strongly disordered limit, whereas the initial Poissonian regime involve much more delocalized eigenstates. In the long-range spectral correlation studies, we shed light on the extent of agreement between our physical spin systems and RMT predictions. We find that the spin systems depart from the ideal RMT predictions for relatively finite $L\ensuremath{\sim}10\ensuremath{-}15$ at least, for the spectral rigidity and a much smaller $L\ensuremath{\sim}2\ensuremath{-}4$ for the number variance. It is further seen that the departure is usually sooner at the uncorrelated (Poissonian) upper end compared to the correlated (Wigner-Dyson) lower end. We carry out a detailed comparison between the local and the global crossover points, associated with the short-range and the long-range statistics respectively, and find that in most cases they seem to agree reasonably well, but for a few exceptions. Our studies also show that the long-range correlations may serve to distinguish between the two Poissonian limits (nonlocalized and localized) in the reentrant crossovers, which the short-range correlations fail to distinguish.