Geometry of Noisy Quantum Many-Body Dynamics with Continuous Symmetries: Entanglement and Correlations

Abstract

We study unitary quantum dynamics in noisy Brownian models with global continuous symmetries, such as $U(1)$ and $SU(2)$, focusing on R\'enyi entanglement entropies and hydrodynamic and non-hydrodynamic correlators. By mapping the averaged late-time dynamics to the low-energy physics of effective replica Hamiltonians, we find that the evolution is controlled by the quantum geometry of their ground-state manifolds, which is directly related to the geometry of $k$-commutants---the symmetry algebra of $k$ replicas of the system. In interacting systems, these $k$-commutants are generically determined solely by the symmetries of the system, independent of microscopic details of the noisy evolution. This allows us to use the time-dependent variational principle (TDVP) to provide simple geometric explanations for the sub-ballistic R\'enyi entanglement growth and the anomalous decay of non-hydrodynamic correlators in interacting systems with continuous symmetries. We find this behavior to be intimately connected to singularities within the $k$-commutant manifolds, arising from frozen ``void'' states in the Hilbert space that exist due to continuous on-site symmetries. This also demystifies the important role of voids in the dynamics of these observables, previously identified in $U(1)$ symmetric systems. We compare these behaviors in interacting systems with Abelian and non-Abelian continuous symmetries and in free-fermion systems, which differ in the geometry of their $k$-commutants. Ultimately, this work provides a general geometric framework for systematically studying observables in noisy systems with continuous symmetries, including Haar-random circuits.