Low-frequency behavior of off-diagonal matrix elements in the integrable XXZ chain and in a locally perturbed quantum-chaotic XXZ chain

Abstract: We study the matrix elements of local operators in the eigenstates of the integrable XXZ chain and of the quantum-chaotic model obtained by locally perturbing the XXZ chain with a magnetic impurity. We show that, at frequencies that are polynomially small in the system size, the behavior of the variances of the off-diagonal matrix elements can be starkly different depending on the operator. In the integrable model we find that, as the frequency $\omega\rightarrow0$, the variances are either nonvanishing (generic behavior) or vanishing (for a special class of operators). In the quantum-chaotic model, on the other hand, we find the variances to be nonvanishing as $\omega\rightarrow0$ and to indicate diffusive dynamics. We highlight which properties of the matrix elements of local operators are different between the integrable and quantum-chaotic models independently of the specific operator selected.