• Accepted Paper

Bootstrapping symmetries in quantum many-body systems from the cross spectral form factor

Chen Bai, Zihan Zhou, Bastien Lapierre, and Shinsei Ryu

Phys. Rev. X - Accepted 26 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1l7s-s4x2

Abstract

Symmetries play a central role in quantum many-body physics, yet uncovering them systematically remains challenging. We introduce a bootstrap framework designed to reconstruct the representation theory of hidden finite group symmetries of quantum many-body lattice Hamiltonians, using only a known symmetry subgroup N and spectral correlations between its symmetry sectors. We introduce the cross spectral form factor (xSFF) as a subgroup-resolved spectral diagnostic of hidden symmetry, which we compute via exact diagonalization to seed the bootstrap algorithm. By applying the constraints derived from these data alongside the algebraic conditions of the fusion rules, our bootstrap procedure sharply restricts the set of candidate groups G. Remarkably, without any prior assumptions regarding the full symmetry group G, our method can systematically recover its representation-theoretic data, including the number and dimensions of the irreducible representations, their branching rules with respect to N, the fusion algebra, and the full character table. This framework applies equally well to chaotic and integrable many-body systems and accommodates both unitary and anti-unitary symmetries. Through various examples, we demonstrate that the underlying group G can be uniquely identified. In particular, our bootstrap independently recovers the ℤ4 symmetry at the self-dual point of the three-state quantum torus chain, detects signatures of projective representations in the effective Hamiltonian of the driven Bose-Hubbard model, and rediscovers the η-pairing SO(4) symmetry of the one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model. Leveraging the universal random-matrix ramp in chaotic systems, we demonstrate the possibility of ramp-only bootstrap alongside an example with hidden commuting symmetries. Furthermore, we establish the xSFF as a diagnostic tool for conserved order parameters in a symmetry-breaking spin-1 chain and introduce an explicit ancilla-assisted measurement circuit to facilitate direct experimental realization. Our framework thus establishes a practical route to identify symmetries directly from dynamical spectral observables.

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