Operator spreading and recoverability of local quantum Fisher information in a $U(1)$-broken spin chain

Abstract

While out-of-time-order correlators establish a causal light cone for operator spreading, they do not guarantee that the parameter sensitivity carried by the operator remains locally recoverable. We examine the distinction between operator spreading and metrological recoverability for a parameter encoded in a single site of an XX spin chain subjected to a $U(1)$-breaking transverse field. We evaluate three levels of local metrological accessibility: the bare single-site quantum Fisher information (QFI), the QFI recovered by a variational sweep decoder acting on a finite spatial block, and the exact block QFI. In the integrable limit, the sensitivity propagates as a one-magnon wave packet, and a single-qubit decoder recovers the full block QFI. Breaking magnon-number conservation couples the parameter tangent state to multi-magnon sectors. We analytically demonstrate that the local QFI has no first-order correction in field strength; the leading depletion enters at $\mathcal{O}(h^2)$ through two-magnon scattering. As the field strength increases, the decoded QFI falls below the exact block QFI -- a gap reflecting a generic finite-dimensional compression limitation, as a single output qubit generically cannot capture the full QFI of a block state whose parameter dependence spans more than an effective two-dimensional subspace. The block QFI itself falls below the conserved global value, confirming that the sensitivity has spread beyond the block into non-local correlations. This operational hierarchy provides a precise quantitative distinction between the arrival of operator support and the local accessibility of metrological information.