Eigenvalue instantons in the spectral form factor of random matrix model

Abstract: We study the late time plateau behavior of the spectral form factor in the Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (GUE) random matrix model. The time derivative of the spectral form factor in the plateau regime is not strictly zero, but non-zero due to a non-perturbative correction in the $1/N$ expansion. We argue that such a non-perturbative correction comes from the eigenvalue instanton of random matrix model and we explicitly compute the instanton correction as a function of time.