Eigenstate thermalization to non-monotonic distributions in strongly-interacting chaotic lattice gases (2501.08967v2)

Abstract: We find non-monotonic equilibrium energy distributions, qualitatively different from the Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein forms, in strongly-interacting many-body chaotic systems. The effect emerges in systems with finite energy spectra, supporting both positive and negative temperatures, in the regime of quantum ergodicity. The results are supported by exact diagonalization calculations for chaotic Fermi-Hubbard and Bose-Hubbard models, when they have Wigner-Dyson statistics of energy spectra and demonstrate eigenstate thermalization. The proposed effects may be observed in experiments with cold atoms in optical lattices.