Optimal local recovery cannot alter critical orthogonality exponents in quantum spin environments

Abstract

We prove a local amplitude-ratio bound for positive ground states and an explicit reverse comparison for fidelity under finite-region erasure. An exact lattice calculation for a connected critical Ising chain gives amplitude exponent $1/8$, preserved by arbitrary optimal control on any fixed spin set and, at the level of logarithmic exponents, on $o(\log N)$ spins. We derive the finite Cauchy product and its uniform strip asymptotics, and document exact two-spin optimization and an interferometric protocol for measuring the recovery. A separate finite-mediator theorem quantifies local compression and a decoder while retaining the rest of the environment exactly. We also give a ground-preparation Ramsey bound, counterexamples to stronger projected-state inferences, and independent full-Hamiltonian calculations.