Speaker: Brian Swingle (Brandeis University)
Title: Hydrodynamics and Corrections to Random Matrix Universality in Quantum Chaos
Abstract: Ensembles of quantum chaotic systems typically exhibit random-matrix-like correlations in the statistics of their energy levels, and the spectral form factor is a useful way to diagnose these correlations. However, real physical systems have non-random structure, like locality and associated slow modes, which should affect these spectral correlations. I will present a theory that predicts the time-dependence of the spectral form factor based on an effective field theory of the relevant slow modes. I will discuss applications of this theory to a variety of systems, including to models with glassy dynamics and sound poles, and I will discuss a forthcoming result in which we relate these corrections to a corresponding effect near the Heisenberg time using the Riemann-Siegel lookalike formula. Based on work with Mike Winer and with Richard Barney, Chris Baldwin, and Victor Galitski.