We show that for dual-unitary kicked chains, built upon a pair of complex Hadamard matrices, correlators of strictly local, traceless operators vanish identically for sufficiently long chains. On the other hand, operators supported at pairs of adjacent chain sites, generically, exhibit nontrivial correlations along the light cone edges. In agreement with Bertini et. al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 210601 (2019)], they can be expressed through the expectation values of a transfer matrix $T$. Furthermore, we identify a remarkable family of dual-unitary models where an explicit information on the spectrum of $T$ is available. For this class of models we provide a closed analytical formula for the corresponding two-point correlators. This result, in turn, allows an evaluation of local correlators in the vicinity of the dual-unitary regime which is exemplified on the kicked Ising spin chain.
We show that local correlators in a wide class of kicked chains can be calculated exactly at light cone edges. Extending previous works on dual-unitary systems, the correlators between local operators are expressed through the expectation values of transfer matrices $T$ with small dimensions. Contrary to the previous studies, our results are not restricted to dual-unitary systems with spatial-temporal symmetry of the dynamics. They hold for a generic case without fine tuning of model parameters. The results are exemplified on the kicked Ising spin chain model, where we provide an explicit form…
Previously, we demonstrated that the dynamics of kicked spin chains possess a remarkable duality property. The trace of the unitary evolution operator for $N$ spins at time $T$ is related to one of a non-unitary evolution operator for $T$ spins at time $N$. Using this duality relation we obtain the oscillating part of the density of states for a large number of spins. Furthermore, the duality relation explains the anomalous short-time behavior of the spectral form factor previously observed in the literature.
We compute the full probability distribution of the spectral form factor in the self-dual kicked Ising model by providing an exact lower bound for each moment and verifying numerically that the latter is saturated. We show that at large enough times the probability distribution agrees exactly with the prediction of Random Matrix Theory if one identifies the appropriate ensemble of random matrices. We find that this ensemble is not the circular orthogonal one - composed of symmetric random unitary matrices and associated with time-reversal-invariant evolution operators - but is an ensemble of r…
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…
Determining the border between ergodic and localized behavior is of central interest for interacting many-body systems. We consider here the recently very popular spin-chain model that is periodically excited. A convenient description of such a many-body system is achieved by the dual operator that evolves the system in contrast to the time-evolution operator not in time but in particle direction. We identify in this paper the largest eigenvalue of a function based on the dual operator as a convenient tool to determine if the system shows ergodic or many-body localized features. By perturbatio…
While quantum circuits built from two-particle dual-unitary (maximally entangled) operators serve as minimal models of typically nonintegrable many-body systems, the construction and characterization of dual-unitary operators themselves are only partially understood. A nonlinear map on the space of unitary operators was proposed in PRL.~125, 070501 (2020) that results in operators being arbitrarily close to dual unitaries. Here we study the map analytically for the two-qubit case describing the basins of attraction, fixed points, and rates of approach to dual unitaries. A subset of dual-unitar…
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…
The effect of a local instantaneous quantum dynamical process (QDP), either unitary or non-unitary, on the quantum state transfer through a unitary Hamiltonian evolution is investigated for both integrable and non-integrable dynamics. There are interference effects of the quantum state propagation and the QDP signal propagation. The state transfer fidelity is small for further sites, from the site where the information is coded, indicating a finite speed for the propagation of the quantum correlation. There is a small change in the state transfer fidelity for the case of non- unitary QDP inter…
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…
We propose a new type of locally interacting quantum circuits which are generated by unitary interactions round-a-face (IRF). Specifically, we discuss a set (or manifold) of dual-unitary IRFs with local Hilbert space dimension $d$ (DUIRF$(d)$) which generate unitary evolutions both in space and time directions of an extended 1+1 dimensional lattice. We show how arbitrary dynamical correlation functions of local observables can be evaluated in terms of finite dimensional completely positive trace preserving unital maps, in complete analogy to recently studied circuits made of dual unitary brick…
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 consider one dimensional block cellular automata, where the local update rules are given by Yang-Baxter maps, which are set theoretical solutions of the Yang-Baxter equations. We show that such systems are superintegrable: they possess an exponentially large set of conserved local charges, such that the charge densities propagate ballistically on the chain. For these quantities we observe a complete absence of "operator spreading". In addition, the models can also have other local charges which are conserved only additively. We discuss concrete models up to local dimensions $N\le 4$, and sh…
Maximally entangled bipartite unitary operators or gates find various applications from quantum information to being building blocks of minimal models of many-body quantum chaos, and have been referred to as "dual unitaries". Dual unitary operators that can create the maximum average entanglement when acting on product states have to satisfy additional constraints. These have been called "2-unitaries" and are examples of perfect tensors that can be used to construct absolutely maximally entangled states of four parties. Hitherto, no systematic method exists, in any local dimension, which resul…
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…
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…
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…
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…
We consider a class of quantum lattice models in $1+1$ dimensions represented as local quantum circuits that enjoy a particular "dual-unitarity" property. In essence, this property ensures that both the evolution "in time" and that "in space" are given in terms of unitary transfer matrices. We show that for this class of circuits, generically non-integrable, one can compute explicitly all dynamical correlations of local observables. Our result is exact, non-pertubative, and holds for any dimension $d$ of the local Hilbert space. In the minimal case of qubits ($d = 2$) we also present a classif…
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…
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…
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…
A global quantum quench can be modeled by a quantum circuit with local unitary gates. In general, entanglement grows linearly at a rate given by entanglement velocity, which is upper bounded by the growth of the light cone. We show that the unitary interactions achieving the maximal rate must remain unitary if we exchange the space and time directions -- a property known as dual unitarity. Our results are robust: approximate maximal entanglement velocity also implies approximate dual unitarity. We further show that maximal entanglement velocity is always accompanied by a specific dynamical pat…
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…
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…
Engineering discrete local dynamics in globally driven dual-species atom arrays
Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences（奥地利科学院量子光学和量子信息研究所）；Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck（因斯布鲁克大学理论物理研究所）；Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna（博洛尼亚大学物理与天文学系）；INFN, Sezione di Bologna（意大利国家核物理研究所博洛尼部分部）；Institute for Experimental Physics, University of Innsbruck（因斯布鲁克大学实验物理研究所）
