Universal limitation of quantum information recovery: symmetry versus coherence

Abstract

Quantum information is scrambled via chaotic time evolution in many-body systems. The recovery of initial information embedded locally in the system from the scrambled quantum state is a fundamental concern in many contexts. From a dynamical perspective, information recovery can measure dynamical instability in quantum chaos, fault-tolerant quantum computing, and the black hole information paradox. This article considers general aspects of quantum information recovery when the scrambling dynamics have conservation laws due to Lie group symmetries. Here, we establish fundamental limitations on the information recovery from scrambling dynamics with arbitrary Lie group symmetries. We show universal relations between information recovery, symmetry, and quantum coherence, which apply to many physical situations. The relations predict that the behavior of the Hayden-Preskill black hole model changes qualitatively under the assumption of the energy conservation law. Consequently, we can rigorously prove that under the energy conservation law, the error of the information recovery from a small black hole remains unignorably large until it completely evaporates. Moreover, even when the black hole is very large, the recovery of information thrown into the black hole is not completed until most of the black hole evaporates. The relations also provide a unified view of the symmetry restrictions on quantum information processing, such as the approximate Eastin-Knill theorem and the Wigner-Araki-Yanase theorem for unitary gates.