Antiscarring from eigenstate stacking in a chaotic spinor condensate
Phys. Rev. A 112, 043307 – Published 14 October, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/k594-zxlj
Abstract
We reveal a feature of quantum scarring in systems with many particles: quantum scars, living densely near an unstable periodic orbit, must be compensated by corresponding antiscarred states suppressed there to establish the uniformity of the whole. The uniformity of the underlying phase space is linked to early-time dynamics—a regime beyond the predictions of random matrix theory and encapsulated in the eigenstate stacking theorem. By extending the domain of the stacking theorem, we apply our theory to a chaotic spinor Bose-Einstein condensate, whose quantum scar dynamics have recently been observed in the laboratory. Our work uncovers how scarring of some eigenstates affects the rest of the chaotic and thermal spectrum in quantum systems with many particles.
