Survival Probability, Particle Imbalance, and Their Relationship in Quadratic Models

We argue that the dynamics of particle imbalance in quadratic fermionic models is, for the majority of initial many-body product states in the site occupation basis, virtually indistinguishable from the dynamics of survival probabilities of single-particle states. We then generalize our statement to a similar relationship between the non-equal time and space density correlation functions in many-body states, and the transition probabilities of single-particle states at nonzero distances. Finally, we study the equal-time connected density-density correlation functions in many-body states, which exhibit certain qualitative analogies with the survival and transition probabilities of single-particle states. Our results are numerically tested for two paradigmatic models of single-particle localization: the 3D Anderson model and the 1D Aubry-André model. This work gives an affirmative answer to the question of whether it is possible to measure features of single-particle survival and transition probabilities by the dynamics of observables in many-body states.