Hydrodynamics and the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis

Abstract

The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) describes the properties of diagonal and off-diagonal matrix elements of local operators in the eigenenergy basis. In this work, we propose a relation between (i) the singular behavior of the off-diagonal part of ETH at small energy differences and (ii) the smooth profile of the diagonal part of ETH as a function of the energy density. We establish this connection from the decay of the autocorrelation functions of local operators, which is constrained by the presence of local conserved quantities whose evolution is described by hydrodynamics. We corroborate our predictions through numerical simulations of two distinct nonintegrable spin-1 Ising models, exhibiting diffusive and superdiffusive transport behaviors. The simulations are performed using dynamical quantum typicality up to 18 spins, for both infinite- and finite-temperature regimes. Published by the American Physical Society 2025