We present a theory of the entanglement transition tuned by measurement strength in qudit chains evolved by random unitary circuits and subject to either weak or random projective measurements. The transition can be understood as a nonanalytic change in the amount of information extracted by the measurements about the initial state of the system, quantified by the Fisher information. To compute the von~Neumann entanglement entropy $S$ and the Fisher information $\mathcal{F}$, we apply a replica method based on a sequence of quantities $\tilde{S}^{(n)}$ and $\mathcal{F}^{(n)}$ that depend on the $n$-th moments of density matrices and reduce to $S$ and $\mathcal{F}$ in the limit $n\to 1$. These quantities with $n\ge 2$ are mapped to free energies of a classical spin model with $n!$ internal states in two dimensions with specific boundary conditions. In particular, $\tilde{S}^{(n)}$ is the excess free energy of a domain wall terminating on the top boundary, and $\mathcal{F}^{(n)}$ is related to the magnetization on the bottom boundary. Phase transitions occur as the spin models undergo ordering transitions in the bulk. Taking the limit of large local Hilbert space dimension $q$ followed by the replica limit $n\to 1$, we obtain the critical measurement probability $p_c=1/2$ and identify the transition as a bond percolation in the 2D square lattice in this limit. Finally, we show there is no phase transition if the measurements are allowed in an arbitrary nonlocal basis, thereby highlighting the relation between the phase transition and information scrambling. We establish an explicit connection between the entanglement phase transition and the purification dynamics of a mixed state evolution and discuss implications of our results to experimental observations of the transition and simulability of quantum dynamics.
Quantum complexity and localization in random and time-periodic unitary circuits
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics（Perimeter理论物理研究所）；University of Waterloo（滑铁卢大学）；Indian Institute of Sciences（印度科学学院）；University of Bristol（布里斯托大学）；Jagiellonian University（亚捷隆大学）；Indian Institute of Science（印度科学学院）
Time evolution of quantum many-body systems typically leads to a state with maximal entanglement allowed by symmetries. Two distinct routes to impede entanglement growth are inducing localization via spatial disorder, or subjecting the system to non-unitary evolution, e.g., via projective measurements. Here we employ the idea of space-time rotation of a circuit to explore the relation between systems that fall into these two classes. In particular, by space-time rotating unitary Floquet circuits that display a localization transition, we construct non-unitary circuits that display a rich varie…
Random quantum circuits are proficient information scramblers and efficient generators of randomness, rapidly approximating moments of the unitary group. We study the convergence of local random quantum circuits to unitary $k$-designs. Employing a statistical mechanical mapping, we give an exact expression of the distance to forming an approximate design as a lattice partition function. In the statistical mechanics model, the approach to randomness has a simple interpretation in terms of domain walls extending through the circuit. We analytically compute the second moment, showing that random …
We introduce a novel class of quantum circuits that are unitary along three distinct "arrows of time". These dynamics share some of the analytical tractability of "dual-unitary" circuits, while exhibiting distinctive and richer phenomenology. We find that two-point correlations in these dynamics are strictly confined to three directions in $(1+1)$-dimensional spacetime -- the two light cone edges, $δx=\pm vδt$, and the static worldline $δx=0$. Along these directions, correlation functions are obtained exactly in terms of quantum channels built from the individual gates that make up the circuit…
Models for non-unitary quantum dynamics, such as quantum circuits that include projective measurements, have been shown to exhibit rich quantum critical behavior. There are many complementary perspectives on this behavior. For example, there is a known correspondence between d-dimensional local non-unitary quantum circuits and tensor networks on a D=(d+1)-dimensional lattice. Here, we show that in the case of systems of non-interacting fermions, there is furthermore a full correspondence between non-unitary circuits in d spatial dimensions and unitary non-interacting fermion problems with stat…
We study a model of free fermions on a chain with dynamics generated by random unitary gates acting on nearest neighbor bonds and present an exact calculation of time-ordered and out-of-time-ordered correlators. We consider three distinct cases: the random circuit with spatio-temporal disorder (i) with and (ii) without particle number conservation and (iii) the particle non-conserving case with purely temporal disorder. In all three cases, temporal disorder causes diffusive operator spreading and $\sim\sqrt{t}$ entanglement growth. This is in sharp contrast to Anderson localization for the cas…
We study the growth of genuine multipartite entanglement in random quantum circuit models, which include random unitary circuit models and the random Clifford circuit. We find that for the random Clifford circuit, the growth of multipartite entanglement remains slower in comparison to the random unitary case. However, the final saturation value of multipartite entanglement is almost the same in both cases. The behavior is then compared to the genuine multipartite entanglement obtained in random matrix product states with a moderately high bond dimension. We then relate the behavior of multipar…
We discuss the variational optimization of a unitary tensor-network circuit with different network structures. The ansatz is performed based on a generalization of well-developed multi-scale entanglement renormalization algorithm and also the conjugate-gradient method with an effective line search. We present the benchmarking calculations for different network structures by studying the Heisenberg model in a strongly disordered magnetic field and a tensor-network $QR$-decomposition.
The entanglement in operator space is a well established measure for the complexity of the quantum many-body dynamics. In particular, that of local operators has recently been proposed as dynamical chaos indicator, i.e. as a quantity able to discriminate between quantum systems with integrable and chaotic dynamics. For chaotic systems the local-operator entanglement is expected to grow linearly in time, while it is expected to grow at most logarithmically in the integrable case. Here we study local-operator entanglement in dual-unitary quantum circuits, a class of "statistically solvable" quan…
Dual-unitary quantum circuits can be used to construct 1+1 dimensional lattice models for which dynamical correlations of local observables can be explicitly calculated. We show how to analytically construct classes of dual-unitary circuits with any desired level of (non-)ergodicity for any dimension of the local Hilbert space, and present analytical results for thermalization to an infinite-temperature Gibbs state (ergodic) and a generalized Gibbs ensemble (non-ergodic). It is shown how a tunable ergodicity-inducing perturbation can be added to a non-ergodic circuit without breaking dual-unit…
We study the scrambling of quantum information in local random unitary circuits by focusing on the tripartite information proposed by Hosur et al. We provide exact results for the averaged Rényi-$2$ tripartite information in two cases: (i) the local gates are Haar random and (ii) the local gates are dual-unitary and randomly sampled from a single-site Haar-invariant measure. We show that the latter case defines a one-parameter family of circuits, and prove that for a "maximally chaotic" subset of this family quantum information is scrambled faster than in the Haar-random case. Our approach is …
Recent works have investigated the emergence of a new kind of random matrix behaviour in unitary dynamics following a quantum quench. Starting from a time-evolved state, an ensemble of pure states supported on a small subsystem can be generated by performing projective measurements on the remainder of the system, leading to a projected ensemble. In chaotic quantum systems it was conjectured that such projected ensembles become indistinguishable from the uniform Haar-random ensemble and lead to a quantum state design. Exact results were recently presented by Ho and Choi [Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 0…
Dual-unitary circuits have emerged as a minimal model for chaotic quantum many-body dynamics in which the dynamics of correlations and entanglement remains tractable. Simultaneously, there has been intense interest in the effect of measurements on the dynamics of quantum information in many-body systems. In this work we introduce a class of models combining dual-unitary circuits with particular projective measurements that allow the exact computation of dynamical correlations of local observables, entanglement growth, and steady-state entanglement. We identify a symmetry preventing a measureme…
We extend the concept of dual unitary quantum gates to quantum lattice models in $2 + 1$ dimensions, by introducing and studying ternary unitary four-particle gates, which are unitary in time and both spatial dimensions. When used as building blocks of lattice models with periodic boundary conditions in time and space (corresponding to infinite temperature states), dynamical correlation functions exhibit a light-ray structure. We also generalize solvable MPS to two spatial dimensions with cylindrical boundary conditions, by showing that the analogous solvable PEPS can be identified with matrix…
We present a quantum circuit with measurements and post-selection that exhibits a panoply of space- and/or time-ordered phases, from ferromagnetic order to spin-density waves to time crystals. Unlike the time crystals that have been found in unitary models, those that occur here are \emph{incommensurate} with the drive frequency. The period of the incommensurate time-crystal phase may be tuned by adjusting the circuit parameters. We demonstrate that the phases of our quantum circuit, including the inherently non-equilibrium dynamical ones, correspond to complex-temperature equilibrium phases o…
Deterministic classical dynamical systems have an ergodic hierarchy, from ergodic through mixing, to Bernoulli systems that are "as random as a coin-toss". Dual-unitary circuits have been recently introduced as solvable models of many-body nonintegrable quantum chaotic systems having a hierarchy of ergodic properties. We extend this to include the apex of a putative quantum ergodic hierarchy which is Bernoulli, in the sense that correlations of single and two-particle observables vanish at space-time separated points. We derive a condition based on the entangling power $e_p(U)$ of the basic tw…
The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis provides to date the most successful description of thermalization in isolated quantum systems by conjecturing statistical properties of matrix elements of typical operators in the (quasi-)energy eigenbasis. Here we study the distribution of matrix elements for a class of operators in dual-unitary quantum circuits in dependence of the frequency associated with the corresponding eigenstates. We provide an exact asymptotic expression for the spectral function, i.e., the second moment of this frequency resolved distribution. The latter is obtained from the…
We study a class of (1+1)D symmetric random quantum circuits with two competing types of measurements in addition to random unitary dynamics. The circuit exhibits a rich phase diagram involving robust symmetry-protected topological (SPT), trivial, and volume law entangled phases, where the transitions are hidden to expectation values of operators and can only be accessed through the entanglement entropy averaged over quantum trajectories. In the absence of unitary dynamics, we find a purely measurement-induced critical point with logarithmic scaling of the entanglement entropy, which we map ex…
Quantum many-body scars in random unitary circuits
Université Paris-Saclay（巴黎萨克雷大学）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；Laboratoire de Physique de l’École normale supérieure（巴黎高等师范学院物理实验室）；ENS（巴黎高等师范学院）；Université PSL（巴黎文理研究大学）；Sorbonne Université（索邦大学）；Université Paris Cité（巴黎西岱大学）
We explore the dynamical phases of unitary Clifford circuits with variable-range interactions, coupled to a monitoring environment. We investigate two classes of models, distinguished by the action of the unitary gates, which either are organized in clusters of finite-range two-body gates, or are pair-wise interactions randomly distributed throughout the system with a power-law distribution. We find the range of the interactions plays a key role in characterizing both phases and their measurement-induced transitions. For the cluster unitary gates we find a transition between a phase with volum…
We introduce a family of dual-unitary circuits in 1+1 dimensions which constitute a discrete analog of conformal field theories. These circuits are quantum cellular automata which are invariant under the joint action of Lorentz and scale transformations. Dual unitaries are four-legged tensors which satisfy the unitarity condition across the time as well as the space direction, a property that makes the model mathematically tractable. Using dual unitaries too, we construct tensor-network states for our 1+1 model, which are interpreted as spatial slices of curved 2+1 discrete geometries, where t…
Quantum circuits that are classically simulatable tell us when quantum computation becomes less powerful than or equivalent to classical computation. Such classically simulatable circuits are of importance because they illustrate what makes universal quantum computation different from classical computers. In this work, we propose a novel family of classically simulatable circuits by making use of dual-unitary quantum circuits (DUQCs), which have been recently investigated as exactly solvable models of non-equilibrium physics, and we characterize their computational power. Specifically, we inve…
We consider one dimensional quantum circuits of the brickwork type, where the fundamental quantum gate is dual unitary. Such models are solvable: the dynamical correlation functions of the infinite temperature ensemble can be computed exactly. We review various existing constructions for dual unitary gates and we supplement them with new ideas in a number of cases. We discuss connections with various topics in physics and mathematics, including quantum information theory, tensor networks for the AdS/CFT correspondence (holographic error correcting codes), classical combinatorial designs (ortho…
Many-body quantum systems are notoriously hard to study theoretically due to the exponential growth of their Hilbert space. It is also challenging to probe the quantum correlations in many-body states in experiments due to their sensitivity to external noise. Using synthetic quantum matter to simulate quantum systems has opened new ways of probing quantum many-body systems with unprecedented control, and of engineering phases of matter which are otherwise hard to find in nature. Noisy quantum circuits have become an important cornerstone of our understanding of quantum many-body dynamics. In p…
Inspired by the Hayden-Preskill protocol for black hole evaporation, we consider the dynamics of a quantum many-body qudit system coupled to an external environment, where the time evolution is driven by the continuous limit of certain $2$-local random unitary circuits. We study both cases where the unitaries are chosen with and without a conserved $U(1)$ charge and focus on two aspects of the dynamics. First, we study analytically and numerically the growth of the entanglement entropy of the system, showing that two different time scales appear: one is intrinsic to the internal dynamics (the …
We investigate a class of brickwork-like quantum circuits on chains of $d-$level systems (qudits) that share the so-called `dual unitarity' property. Namely, these systems generate unitary dynamics not only when propagating in the time direction, but also when propagating in the space direction. We consider space-time homogeneous (Floquet) circuits and perturb them with a quenched single-site disorder, i.e. by applying independent single site random unitaries drawn from arbitrary non-singular distribution over ${\rm SU}(d)$, e.g. one concentrated around the identity, after each layer of the ci…
After quantum quenches in many-body systems, finite subsystems evolve non-trivially in time, eventually approaching a stationary state. In typical situations, the reduced density matrix of a given subsystem begins and ends this endeavour as a low-entangled vector in the space of operators. This means that if its operator space entanglement initially grows (which is generically the case), it must eventually decrease, describing a barrier-shaped curve. Understanding the shape of this "entanglement barrier" is interesting for three main reasons: (i) it quantifies the dynamics of entanglement in t…
We consider a unitary circuit where the underlying gates are chosen to be R-matrices satisfying the Yang-Baxter equation and correlation functions can be expressed through a transfer matrix formalism. These transfer matrices are no longer Hermitian and differ from the ones guaranteeing local conservation laws, but remain mutually commuting at different values of the spectral parameter defining the circuit. Exact eigenstates can still be constructed as a Bethe ansatz, but while these transfer matrices are diagonalizable in the inhomogeneous case, the homogeneous limit corresponds to an exceptio…
Interacting many-body systems with explicitly accessible spatio-temporal correlation functions are extremely rare, especially in the absence of integrability. Recently, we identified a remarkable class of such systems and termed them dual-unitary quantum circuits. These are brick-wall type local quantum circuits whose dynamics are unitary in both time and space. For these systems the spatio-temporal correlation functions are non-trivial only at the edge of the causal light cone and can be computed in terms of one-dimensional transfer matrices. Dual-unitarity, however, requires fine-tuning and …
We introduce a quantum Monte Carlo inspired reweighting scheme to accurately compute energies from optimally short quantum circuits. This effectively hybrid quantum-classical approach features both entanglement provided by a short quantum circuit, and the presence of an effective non-unitary operator at the same time. The functional form of this projector is borrowed from classical computation and is able to filter-out high-energy components generated by a sub-optimal variational quantum heuristic ansatz. The accuracy of this approach is demonstrated numerically in finding energies of entangle…
We consider the long-time limit of out-of-time-order correlators (OTOCs) in two classes of quantum lattice models with time evolution governed by local unitary quantum circuits and maximal butterfly velocity $v_{B} = 1$. Using a transfer matrix approach, we present analytic results for the long-time value of the OTOC on and inside the light cone. First, we consider `dual-unitary' circuits with various levels of ergodicity, including the integrable and non-integrable kicked Ising model, where we show exponential decay away from the light cone and relate both the decay rate and the long-time val…
We consider the class of dual-unitary quantum circuits in $1+1$ dimensions and introduce a notion of ``solvable'' matrix product states (MPSs), defined by a specific condition which allows us to tackle their time evolution analytically. We provide a classification of the latter, showing that they include certain MPSs of arbitrary bond dimension, and study analytically different aspects of their dynamics. For these initial states, we show that while any subsystem of size $\ell$ reaches infinite temperature after a time $t\propto \ell$, irrespective of the presence of conserved quantities, the l…
