English

Average Spread Complexity and the Higher-Order Level Spacing

High Energy Physics - Theory 2025-04-28 v2 Statistical Mechanics Quantum Physics

Abstract

We investigate the spread complexity of a generic two-level subsystem of a larger system to analyze the influence of energy level statistics, comparing chaotic and integrable systems. Initially focusing on the nearest-neighbor level spacing, we observe the characteristic slope-dip-ramp-plateau structure. Further investigation reveals that certain matrix models exhibit additional iterative peaks, motivating us to generalize the known spacing distributions to higher-order level spacings. While this structure persists in chaotic systems, we find that integrable systems can also display similar features, highlighting limitations in using complexity as a universal diagnostic of quantum chaos.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2504.14362,
  title  = {Average Spread Complexity and the Higher-Order Level Spacing},
  author = {Amin Faraji Astaneh and Niloofar Vardian},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.14362},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

23 pages, 12 figures; references added

R2 v1 2026-06-28T23:04:21.658Z