We calculate the probability distribution of entanglement entropy S across a cut of a finite one dimensional spin chain of length L at an infinite randomness fixed point using Fisher's strong randomness renormalization group (RG). Using the random transverse-field Ising model as an example, the distribution is shown to take the form $p(S|L) \sim L^{-ψ(k)}$, where $k = S / \log [L/L_0]$, the large deviation function $ψ(k)$ is found explicitly, and $L_0$ is a nonuniversal microscopic length. We discuss the implications of such a distribution on numerical techniques that rely on entanglement, such as matrix product state (MPS) based techniques. Our results are verified with numerical RG simulations, as well as the actual entanglement entropy distribution for the random transverse-field Ising model which we calculate for large L via a mapping to Majorana fermions.
We propose an entanglement-based algorithm of the tensor-network strong-disorder renormalization group (tSDRG) method for quantum spin systems with quenched randomness. In contrast to the previous tSDRG algorithm based on the energy spectrum of renormalized block Hamiltonians, we directly utilizes the entanglement structure associated with the blocks to be renormalized. We examine accuracy of the new algorithm for the random antiferromagnetic Heisenberg models on the one-dimensional, triangular, and square lattices. We then find that the entanglement-based tSDRG achieves better accuracy than t…
Quenched randomness can have a dramatic effect on the dynamics of isolated 1D quantum many-body systems, even for systems that thermalize. This is because transport, entanglement, and operator spreading can be hindered by `Griffiths' rare regions which locally resemble the many-body-localized phase and thus act as weak links. We propose coarse-grained models for entanglement growth and for the spreading of quantum operators in the presence of such weak links. We also examine entanglement growth across a single weak link numerically. We show that these weak links have a stronger effect on entan…
Scrambling is a process by which the state of a quantum system is effectively randomized due to the global entanglement that "hides" initially localized quantum information. In this work, we lay the mathematical foundations of studying randomness complexities beyond scrambling by entanglement properties. We do so by analyzing the generalized (in particular Rényi) entanglement entropies of designs, i.e. ensembles of unitary channels or pure states that mimic the uniformly random distribution (given by the Haar measure) up to certain moments. A main collective conclusion is that the Rényi entang…
Eigenstates of local many-body interacting systems that are far from spectral edges are thought to be ergodic and close to being random states. This is consistent with the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis and volume-law scaling of entanglement. We point out that systematic departures from complete randomness are generically present in mid-spectrum eigenstates, and focus on the departure of the entanglement entropy from the random-state prediction. We show that the departure is (partly) due to spatial correlations and due to orthogonality to the eigenstates at the spectral edge, which impos…
The extreme-value statistics of the entanglement spectrum in disordered spin chains possessing a many-body localization transition is examined. It is expected that eigenstates in the metallic or ergodic phase, behave as random states and hence the eigenvalues of the reduced density matrix, commonly referred to as the entanglement spectrum, are expected to follow the eigenvalue statistics of a trace normalized Wishart ensemble. In particular, the density of eigenvalues is supposed to follow the universal Marchenko-Pastur distribution. We find deviations in the tails both for the disordered XXZ …
In tensor networks, a geometric operation of pushing a bond cut surface toward a minimal surface corresponds to entanglement distillation. Cutting bonds defines a reduced transition matrix on the bond cut surface and the associated quantum state naturally emerges from it. We justify this picture quantitatively by evaluating the trace distance between the maximally entangled states and the states on bond cut surfaces in the multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA) and matrix product states in a canonical form. Our numerical result for the random MERA is in a reasonable agreement w…
We study how quantum states are scrambled via braiding in systems of non-Abelian anyons through the lens of entanglement spectrum statistics. In particular, we focus on the degree of scrambling, defined as the randomness produced by braiding, at the same amount of entanglement entropy. To quantify the degree of randomness, we define a distance between the entanglement spectrum level spacing distribution of a state evolved under random braids and that of a Haar-random state, using the Kullback-Leibler divergence $D_{\mathrm{KL}}$. We study $D_{\mathrm{KL}}$ numerically for random braids of Majo…
The temporal evolution of the entanglement between two qubits evolving by random interactions is studied analytically and numerically. Two different types of randomness are investigated. Firstly we analyze an ensemble of systems with randomly chosen but time-independent interaction Hamiltonians. Secondly we consider the case of a temporally fluctuating Hamiltonian, where the unitary evolution can be understood as a random walk on the SU (4) group manifold. As a by-product we compute the metric tensor and its inverse as well as the Laplace-Beltrami for SU (4).
We explore the relation between entanglement entropy of quantum many body systems and the distribution of corresponding, properly selected, observables. Such a relation is necessary to actually measure the entanglement entropy. We show that in general, the Shannon entropy of the probability distribution of certain symmetry observables gives a lower bound to the entropy. In some cases this bound is saturated and directly gives the entropy. We also show other cases in which the probability distribution contains enough information to extract the entropy: we show how this is done in several exampl…
We investigate bipartite entanglement in random quantum $XY$ models at equilibrium. Depending on the intrinsic time scales associated with equilibration of the random parameters and measurements associated with observation of the system, we consider two distinct kinds of disorder, namely annealed and quenched disorders. We conduct a comparative study of the effects of disorder on nearest-neighbor entanglement, when the nature of randomness changes from being annealed to quenched. We find that entanglement properties of the annealed and quenched disordered systems are drastically different from…
The multiscale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA) provides a constructive algorithm for realizing wavefunctions that are inherently scale invariant. Unlike conformally invariant partition functions however, the finite bond dimension $χ$ of the MERA provides a cut-off in the fields that can be realized. In this letter, we demonstrate that this cut-off is equivalent to the one obtained when approximating a thermal state of a critical Hamiltonian with a matrix product operator (MPO) of finite bond dimension $χ$. This is achieved by constructing an explicit mapping between the isometries o…
We study entanglement entropy for regions with a singular boundary in higher dimensions using the AdS/CFT correspondence and find that various singularities make new universal contributions. When the boundary CFT has an even spacetime dimension, we find that the entanglement entropy of a conical surface contains a term quadratic in the logarithm of the UV cut-off. In four dimensions, the coefficient of this contribution is proportional to the central charge 'c'. A conical singularity in an odd number of spacetime dimensions contributes a term proportional to the logarithm of the UV cut-off. We…
Characterizing how entanglement grows with time in a many-body system, for example after a quantum quench, is a key problem in non-equilibrium quantum physics. We study this problem for the case of random unitary dynamics, representing either Hamiltonian evolution with time--dependent noise or evolution by a random quantum circuit. Our results reveal a universal structure behind noisy entanglement growth, and also provide simple new heuristics for the `entanglement tsunami' in Hamiltonian systems without noise. In 1D, we show that noise causes the entanglement entropy across a cut to grow acco…
We use the holographic methods to calculate the entanglement entropy for field theories modified by $T\bar{T}$ insertion. Based on the available holographic proposals, this calculation reduces to the holographic computations in AdS with finite cut-off. We perform a direct holographic calculation of the entanglement entropy for two dimensional deformed theory. By direct we mean the evaluation of the gravitational action in the bulk spacetime which has been reconstructed from a dual CFT$_2$ on $n$-sheeted Riemann surface as a finite cut-off boundary. We also apply Ryu-Takayanagi's prescription t…
