Quantum scrambling of algebras of observables: the $\mathbb{Z}_2$-symmetric case

Abstract

We consider unitary quantum scrambling for an entire class of observable algebras $\mathcal A$ whose commutant ${\mathcal A}'=\mathbb{C}\mathbb{Z}_2$ is generated by a Hermitian involution $S$, i.e., a parity operator. We adopt two different, although related, scrambling measures: (a) the algebraic out-of-time-order correlator (A-OTOC) introduced in [Andreadakis, Anand, and Zanardi, Phys. Rev. A 107, 042217 (2023)], and (b) a Slater-determinant-type quantity, dubbed the Plücker fidelity, obtained by embedding operator algebras into a higher-dimensional projective operator space. Both measures admit a simple geometric interpretation in terms of distances between algebras and their dynamical images. Moreover, they can be expressed in terms of the norm of the $\mathbb{Z}_2$-symmetry-breaking component of the unitary, which is in turn controlled by the time autocorrelation function of the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ generator $S$. We derive exact expressions for the A-OTOC and the Plücker fidelity in the general case, as well as their values for a random unitary. For Hamiltonian-generated channels, we compute their long-time averages, as well as the typical values of these long-time averages for random generators $S$. Finally, we numerically explore the results of our formalism for interacting spin chains in different phases and for different physical parity operators.