SciPost Submission Page
From single-particle to many-body chaos in Yukawa--SYK: theory and a cavity-QED proposal
by David Pascual Solis, Alex Windey, Soumik Bandyopadhyay, Andrea Legramandi, Philipp Hauke
Submission summary
| Authors (as registered SciPost users): | David Pascual Solis |
| Submission information | |
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| Preprint Link: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.04762v2 (pdf) |
| Date submitted: | Nov. 24, 2025, 10:06 a.m. |
| Submitted by: | David Pascual Solis |
| Submitted to: | SciPost Physics |
| Ontological classification | |
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| Academic field: | Physics |
| Specialties: |
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| Approaches: | Theoretical, Computational |
The author(s) disclose that the following generative AI tools have been used in the preparation of this submission:
Generative AI tools (OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude) were used for technical assistance, such as suggesting code fragments, helping debug numerical routines, and checking occasional LaTeX formatting issues.
Abstract
Understanding how quantum systems transition from integrable to fully chaotic behavior remains a central open problem in physics. The Sachdev--Ye--Kitaev (SYK) model provides a paradigmatic framework for studying many-body chaos and holography, yet it captures only the strongly correlated limit, leaving intermediate regimes unexplored. Here, we investigate the Yukawa--SYK (YSYK) model, where bosonic fields mediate random fermionic interactions, and demonstrate that it naturally bridges single-particle and many-body chaos. Using spectral and dynamical chaos markers, we perform a comprehensive finite-size characterization of the YSYK model. We show that the interaction strength acts as a tunable control parameter interpolating between the SYK$_2$ and SYK$_4$ limits, and introduce a framework enabling direct and quantitative comparison with these benchmark models. In the intermediate regimes, we uncover distinct dynamical regimes marked by partial ergodicity breaking, prethermalization plateaus, and incomplete scrambling. Finally, we propose a feasible optical-cavity implementation of the YSYK model using ultra-cold atoms. Our results establish the YSYK model as a unifying platform connecting single-particle and many-body chaos, paving the way for experimental observation of these phenomena.
Author indications on fulfilling journal expectations
- Provide a novel and synergetic link between different research areas.
- Open a new pathway in an existing or a new research direction, with clear potential for multi-pronged follow-up work
- Detail a groundbreaking theoretical/experimental/computational discovery
- Present a breakthrough on a previously-identified and long-standing research stumbling block