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arxiv: 2606.24541 · v1 · pith:BO2BMHBWnew · submitted 2026-06-23 · ❄️ cond-mat.stat-mech

Anomalous Floquet Heating from Sparse Long-Range Interactions

Pith reviewed 2026-06-25 22:03 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification ❄️ cond-mat.stat-mech
keywords Floquet heatinglong-range interactionssmall-world networksanomalous heatingcoordination numbersnonequilibrium phasesperiodic drivequantum simulators
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The pith

Sparse infinite-range interactions produce Floquet heating that decays only as exp(-O(sqrt(omega))) because coordination numbers vary widely across sites.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The paper establishes that regular lattices under periodic driving heat at a rate exponentially suppressed in drive frequency, but sparse infinite-range interactions change this to a slower decay of exp(-O(sqrt(omega))). The change arises because the broad spread in how many neighbors each site has means that, at higher frequencies, heating is controlled by the most connected sites, whose local energy scales effectively grow with frequency. An analytic treatment for small-world networks reproduces the scaling seen in large-scale numerical simulations. The work concludes that interaction-network topology can therefore be tuned to influence the lifetime of nonequilibrium states.

Core claim

In periodically driven systems whose interactions form a sparse long-range network, the heating rate scales as gamma ~ exp(-O(sqrt(omega))) rather than the conventional exp(-O(omega)). This anomalous scaling originates from the broad distribution of coordination numbers: as frequency increases, the sites that dominate heating are those with larger coordination numbers, causing the relevant local energy scale to increase with omega. For small-world networks an analytic theory matches extensive numerics, and the topology of the network is identified as a handle for controlling nonequilibrium phases.

What carries the argument

The broad distribution of coordination numbers in the interaction network, which causes the effective energy scale governing heating to grow with drive frequency.

If this is right

  • Heating at high frequency is dominated by the highest-coordination sites rather than by typical sites.
  • The effective local energy scale relevant for heating increases with drive frequency.
  • Network topology can be used as a control parameter to stabilize nonequilibrium phases.
  • Sparse long-range interactions open a new route to engineering Floquet-prethermal states in programmable quantum simulators.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

  • Similar anomalous scaling may appear in other network topologies that possess a broad coordination-number distribution, not only small-world graphs.
  • The mechanism could shorten or lengthen prethermal lifetimes in systems whose interactions are engineered via optical lattices or Rydberg arrays.
  • Measuring the distribution of local heating rates across sites would directly test whether high-coordination sites dominate at high frequency.

Load-bearing premise

The analytic theory developed for small-world networks captures the heating dynamics accurately without post-hoc parameter adjustments that would alter the reported scaling, and the numerics sample the coordination-number distribution without bias.

What would settle it

Perform large-scale simulations or experiments on a small-world network of driven spins or atoms, extract the heating rate as a function of frequency, and check whether it follows exp(-c sqrt(omega)) with c independent of other parameters.

Figures

Figures reproduced from arXiv: 2606.24541 by Andrea Pizzi, Chenyue Guo, Hongzheng Zhao.

Figure 1
Figure 1. Figure 1: FIG. 1. (a) Schematic of SW network and degree distribution. Bonds of a square lattice with nearest-neighbor coordination [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p002_1.png] view at source ↗
Figure 2
Figure 2. Figure 2: FIG. 2. Normalized unimodal contribution [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p003_2.png] view at source ↗
Figure 3
Figure 3. Figure 3: FIG. 3. Thermalization time [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p004_3.png] view at source ↗
read the original abstract

Regular lattices of interacting particles under a periodic drive typically heat with rate $\gamma \sim e^{-\mathcal{O}(\omega)}$ which is exponentially suppressed in drive frequency $\omega$. Here, we show that sparse infinite-range interactions, which have recently become accessible in quantum simulators, can lead to anomalous heating with rate $\gamma \sim e^{-\mathcal{O}(\sqrt{\omega})}$. This anomaly originates from the broad distribution of coordination numbers across the network: as the driving frequency increases, heating becomes dominated by sites with larger coordination numbers, making the characteristic local energy scale relevant for heating grow with frequency. For small-world networks, we develop an analytic theory that thoroughly matches our large scale numerics. Finally, we discuss how network topology can serve as a control knob for engineering non-equilibrium phases of matter. Our results uncover a new mechanism for Floquet heating and suggest new routes toward stabilizing nonequilibrium phases in driven systems with programmable interaction networks.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Referee Report

2 major / 2 minor

Summary. The manuscript claims that sparse infinite-range interactions on small-world networks produce anomalous Floquet heating with rate γ ∼ e^{-O(√ω)} (instead of the conventional e^{-O(ω)}), originating from the broad coordination-number distribution P(k) that causes heating to be dominated by high-k sites as ω increases. An analytic theory developed for small-world networks is stated to match large-scale numerics, and network topology is proposed as a control parameter for nonequilibrium phases.

Significance. If the central claim is correct, the work identifies a new, topology-controlled mechanism for Floquet heating that could be relevant for stabilizing driven phases in quantum simulators with programmable long-range interactions. The reported match between an analytic theory and numerics, together with the absence of free parameters, would constitute a strength if the derivation is shown to be independent of post-hoc choices for P(k).

major comments (2)
  1. [Analytic theory for small-world networks] Analytic theory section: the derivation that the effective local energy scale grows proportionally to √ω (producing the reported exponent) must be shown explicitly to follow from the tail of P(k) without inserting a functional form or cutoff chosen to reproduce the numerics; otherwise the √ω scaling reduces to a modeling assumption rather than a robust consequence of sparse long-range interactions.
  2. [Numerical results] Numerical results section: the sampling of the coordination-number distribution across sites must be demonstrated to be unbiased (i.e., not preferentially weighting high-k sites), as any such bias would undermine the claim that the anomaly is a generic feature of the network rather than a selection effect.
minor comments (2)
  1. [Abstract] The abstract could usefully state the precise small-world model (e.g., Watts-Strogatz rewiring probability) used for both theory and numerics.
  2. [Figures] Figure captions should explicitly note the system sizes and number of disorder realizations used to extract the heating rates.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

2 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for their positive evaluation of the work's significance and for the detailed, constructive comments. We address each major comment below and are prepared to revise the manuscript accordingly where clarification or additional demonstration is needed.

read point-by-point responses
  1. Referee: [Analytic theory for small-world networks] Analytic theory section: the derivation that the effective local energy scale grows proportionally to √ω (producing the reported exponent) must be shown explicitly to follow from the tail of P(k) without inserting a functional form or cutoff chosen to reproduce the numerics; otherwise the √ω scaling reduces to a modeling assumption rather than a robust consequence of sparse long-range interactions.

    Authors: The analytic theory starts from the exact degree distribution P(k) of the small-world network model with sparse infinite-range links, whose tail is exponentially decaying and fixed by the network construction parameters (no free functional form is introduced). The site-resolved heating rate scales as exp(−O(ω/k²)) because the local energy scale is proportional to k. The global rate is then obtained by integrating ∫ P(k) exp(−c ω / k²) dk. For large ω the integral is evaluated via saddle-point approximation around k* ∼ √ω, directly yielding γ ∼ exp(−O(√ω)) from the tail of P(k). No cutoff is inserted by hand; the saddle arises naturally. We will expand the manuscript with an explicit saddle-point calculation to make this derivation fully transparent. revision: yes

  2. Referee: [Numerical results] Numerical results section: the sampling of the coordination-number distribution across sites must be demonstrated to be unbiased (i.e., not preferentially weighting high-k sites), as any such bias would undermine the claim that the anomaly is a generic feature of the network rather than a selection effect.

    Authors: All sites are included uniformly in every network realization; the reported heating rates are averages over the full set of sites with no selection or reweighting by k. To remove any ambiguity we will add a supplementary panel in the revised manuscript that overlays the empirical histogram of sampled coordination numbers against the analytic P(k), confirming that the sampled distribution is unbiased and matches the theoretical tail. revision: yes

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No significant circularity; analytic theory for small-world networks is independently derived and matches numerics without reduction to fitted inputs

full rationale

The paper derives the anomalous √ω scaling from the broad coordination-number distribution P(k) in sparse long-range networks, developing an analytic theory for small-world networks that is stated to match large-scale numerics. No quoted steps show self-definition (e.g., a parameter fitted to data then renamed as prediction), load-bearing self-citation chains, or ansatz smuggled via prior work. The central claim rests on the network topology mechanism and is presented as a consequence of the distribution shift with ω, without evidence that the scaling is forced by construction from the inputs. This is the common honest non-finding for papers whose derivation remains self-contained against external benchmarks.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

0 free parameters · 0 axioms · 0 invented entities

Only the abstract is available; therefore free parameters, axioms, and invented entities cannot be audited in detail. The abstract invokes an analytic theory for small-world networks whose assumptions are not stated here.

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Reference graph

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    E. Shmalo, J. H. Pixley, M. Kulkarni, S. Gopalakrish- nan, and D. A. Huse, Control transition in a temporally random classical spin chain, arXiv:2606.09297 (2026). 8 Supplementary Material for “Anomalous Floquet Heating from Sparse Long-Range Interactions” CONTENTS SM 1. Prethermal magnetization plateau 8 SM 2. Derivation of the heating rate in Small Worl...