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arXiv · 2610.04197

How to distinguish chaos from integrability using OTOC

Alexey Milekhin·Anders Wallberg
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Abstract

The decay of out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs) to a small residual value signals the scrambling of quantum information. This behavior is generic: it occurs in both chaotic and interacting integrable many-body systems, and therefore cannot by itself distinguish between them. In this paper we analytically study the late-time saturation value of a closely related observable, operator purity, and show that its scaling with system size robustly distinguishes chaotic from integrable systems. Our approach is based on the Mazur bound, which provides concrete scaling estimates and makes explicit why the locality of integrable charges matters. We support our findings with numerical simulations of one-dimensional spin chains.

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Alexey Milekhin, Anders Wallberg. 2026-10-03. How to distinguish chaos from integrability using OTOC. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.04197

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