Eigenstate condensation in quantum systems with finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces
Abstract
Random quantum states drawn from the Haar ensemble with a constraint on the energy expectation value display \textit{eigenstate condensation}: for below a critical value , they develop macroscopic overlap with the ground state. We study eigenstate condensation in systems with finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. These systems display three phases: a ground-state phase, in which energy-constrained random states have macroscopic overlap with the ground state; a high-temperature phase, in which they have exponentially small overlap with each energy eigenstate; and an anti-ground-state phase, in which they have macroscopic overlap with the most highly excited state. In local spin systems the ground-state and anti-ground-state phases approach the middle of the spectrum as , but -- because the condensation phase transitions have exponential, rather than polynomial, finite-size scaling -- the crossover becomes exponentially sharp in system size and the high-temperature phase is best understood as an extended phase.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.18869,
title = {Eigenstate condensation in quantum systems with finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces},
author = {Christopher David White and Michael Winer and Noam Bernstein},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.18869},
year = {2026}
}