Reduced-density-matrix spectrum and block entropy of permutationally invariant many-body systems

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2010 Jul;82(1 Pt 1):011142. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.82.011142. Epub 2010 Jul 30.

Abstract

Spectral properties of the reduced density matrix (RDM) of permutational invariant quantum many-body systems are investigated. The RDM block diagonalization which accounts for all symmetries of the Hamiltonian is achieved. The analytical expression of the RDM spectrum is provided for arbitrary parameters and rigorously proved in the thermodynamical limit. The existence of several sum rules and recurrence relations among RDM eigenvalues is also demonstrated and the distribution function of RDM eigenvalues (including degeneracies) characterized. In particular, we prove that the distribution function approaches a two-dimensional Gaussian in the limit of large subsystem sizes n>>1. As a physical application we discuss the von Neumann entropy (VNE) of a block of size n for a system of hard-core bosons on a complete graph, as a function of n and of the temperature T. The occurrence of a crossover of VNE from purely logarithmic behavior at T=0 to a purely linear behavior in n for T≥Tc, is demonstrated.