Probing critical phases in quasiperiodic systems via subsystem information capacity

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Dong, Huaijin, Zhang, Long
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Dong, Huaijin
Zhang, Long
author_facet Dong, Huaijin
Zhang, Long
contents We systematically investigate the entanglement and information dynamics of quasiperiodic systems across their extended, critical, and localized phases, aiming to identify dynamical signatures that can reveal the multifractal spatial structure of critical states and distinguish critical phases from the extended and localized regimes. Focusing on the generalized Aubry-André-Harper model, we complement the half-chain entanglement entropy with the spatially resolved subsystem information capacity (SIC) and demonstrate that critical states exhibit pronounced spatial heterogeneity absent in the extended and localized phases. In the steady state, the SIC reveals a stepwise ramp as a function of subsystem size, reflecting an underlying fragmentation of the chain into weakly connected subregions. Dynamically, information initially localized within such a subregion can undergo coherent long-lived oscillations, dubbed subregion echoes, whose period scales with the subregion length, in quantitative agreement with a quasiparticle picture of confined quasiparticle reflections. We trace this internal fragmentation to the incommensurately distributed zeros (IDZs) in the off-diagonal hopping terms of the Hamiltonian. To establish the generality of the SIC as a diagnostic tool, we further apply it to a mobility-edge phase with coexisting extended and localized states and to a critical phase that does not originate from IDZ fragmentation, and show that the SIC can cleanly distinguish these scenarios through their distinct steady-state profiles, initial-site sensitivities, and the presence or absence of subregion echoes. Our results establish the SIC as a powerful real-space probe for diagnosing critical phases and uncovering the bottlenecked connectivity that underlies the multifractal structure of critical states.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_06075
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Probing critical phases in quasiperiodic systems via subsystem information capacity
Dong, Huaijin
Zhang, Long
Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Quantum Physics
We systematically investigate the entanglement and information dynamics of quasiperiodic systems across their extended, critical, and localized phases, aiming to identify dynamical signatures that can reveal the multifractal spatial structure of critical states and distinguish critical phases from the extended and localized regimes. Focusing on the generalized Aubry-André-Harper model, we complement the half-chain entanglement entropy with the spatially resolved subsystem information capacity (SIC) and demonstrate that critical states exhibit pronounced spatial heterogeneity absent in the extended and localized phases. In the steady state, the SIC reveals a stepwise ramp as a function of subsystem size, reflecting an underlying fragmentation of the chain into weakly connected subregions. Dynamically, information initially localized within such a subregion can undergo coherent long-lived oscillations, dubbed subregion echoes, whose period scales with the subregion length, in quantitative agreement with a quasiparticle picture of confined quasiparticle reflections. We trace this internal fragmentation to the incommensurately distributed zeros (IDZs) in the off-diagonal hopping terms of the Hamiltonian. To establish the generality of the SIC as a diagnostic tool, we further apply it to a mobility-edge phase with coexisting extended and localized states and to a critical phase that does not originate from IDZ fragmentation, and show that the SIC can cleanly distinguish these scenarios through their distinct steady-state profiles, initial-site sensitivities, and the presence or absence of subregion echoes. Our results establish the SIC as a powerful real-space probe for diagnosing critical phases and uncovering the bottlenecked connectivity that underlies the multifractal structure of critical states.
title Probing critical phases in quasiperiodic systems via subsystem information capacity
topic Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.06075