Comment on "Systematic Construction of Counterexamples to the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis"

Rubem Mondaini, Krishnanand Mallayya, Lea F. Santos, Marcos Rigol

Published 2017-11-16Version 1

In a recent Letter [PhysRevLett.119.030601 (2017), arXiv:1702.08227], Shiraishi and Mori claim to provide a general method for constructing local Hamiltonians that do not exhibit eigenstate thermalization. We argue that the claim is based on a misunderstanding of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH). More specifically, on the assumption that ETH is valid for the entire Hamiltonian matrix instead of each symmetry sector independently. We discuss what happens if one mixes symmetry sectors in the two-dimensional transverse field Ising model.