Bulk gravitational interpretation of large SFF oscillations for single SYK samples

Provide a bulk gravitational interpretation of the large oscillations observed in the spectral form factor computed for individual samples of the q=4 Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev (SYK) Hamiltonian without time-averaging.

Background

While ensemble-averaged SYK exhibits a clean ramp and plateau consistent with JT gravity predictions, single-sample SFFs (computed without time-averaging) show large oscillations that obscure universal features. Time-averaging can smooth these oscillations, but their fundamental bulk meaning remains unclear.

The authors explicitly state they do not know a satisfying bulk gravitational interpretation for these oscillations. Explaining them would deepen the understanding of how holographic features manifest in individual chaotic systems and inform the design and analysis of experiments probing SYK-like physics.