arXiv subjects

Brian Swingle

Publications and source records attributed to Brian Swingle.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Entanglement structure of non-equilibrium steady states

We study the problem of calculating transport properties of interacting quantum systems, specifically electrical and thermal conductivities, by computing the non-equilibrium steady state (NESS) of the system biased by contacts. Our approach is based on the structure of entanglement in the NESS. With reasonable physical assumptions, we show that a NESS close to local equilibrium is lightly entangled and can be represented via a computationally efficient tensor network. We further argue that the NESS may be found by dynamically evolving the system within a manifold of appropriate low entanglement states. A physically realistic law of dynamical evolution is Markovian open system dynamics, or the Lindblad equation. We explore this approach in a well-studied free fermion model where comparisons with the literature are possible. We study both electrical and thermal currents with and without disorder, and compute entropic quantities such as mutual information and conditional mutual information. We conclude with a discussion of the prospects of this approach for the challenging problem of transport in strongly interacting systems, especially those with disorder.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Slow scrambling in disordered quantum systems

Recent work has studied the growth of commutators as a probe of chaos and information scrambling in quantum many-body systems. In this work we study the effect of static disorder on the growth of commutators in a variety of contexts. We find generically that disorder slows the onset of scrambling, and, in the case of a many-body localized state, partially halts it. We access the many-body localized state using a standard fixed point Hamiltonian, and we show that operators exhibit slow logarithmic growth under time evolution. We compare the result with the expected growth of commutators in both localized and delocalized non-interacting disordered models. Finally, based on a scaling argument, we state a conjecture about the effect of weak interactions on the growth of commutators in an interacting diffusive metal.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Mixed s-sourcery: Building many-body states using bubbles of Nothing

In arXiv:1407.8203, we introduced the idea of s-sourcery, a general formalism for building many-body quantum ground states using renormalization-group-inspired quantum circuits. Here we define a generalized notion of s-sourcery that applies to mixed states, and study its properties and applicability. We prove a number of theorems establishing the prevalence of mixed s-source fixed points. For our examples we focus on thermal states of local Hamiltonians. Thermal double states (also called thermofield double states) and the machinery of approximate conditional independence are used heavily in the constructions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Interferometric Approach to Probing Fast Scrambling

Out-of-time-order correlation functions provide a proxy for diagnosing chaos in quantum systems. We propose and analyze an interferometric scheme for their measurement, using only local quantum control and no reverse time evolution. Our approach utilizes a combination of Ramsey interferometry and the recently demonstrated ability to directly measure Renyi entropies. To implement our scheme, we present a pair of cold-atom-based experimental blueprints; moreover, we demonstrate that within these systems, one can naturally realize the transverse-field Sherrington-Kirkpatrick (TFSK) model, which exhibits certain similarities with fast scrambling black holes. We perform a detailed numerical study of scrambling in the TFSK model, observing an interesting interplay between the fast scrambling bound and the onset of spin-glass order.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Lieb-Robinson and the butterfly effect

As experiments are increasingly able to probe the quantum dynamics of systems with many degrees of freedom, it is interesting to probe fundamental bounds on the dynamics of quantum information. We elaborate on the relationship between one such bound---the Lieb-Robinson bound---and the butterfly effect in strongly-coupled quantum systems. The butterfly effect implies the ballistic growth of local operators in time, which can be quantified with the "butterfly" velocity $v_B$. Similarly, the Lieb-Robinson velocity places a state independent ballistic upper bound on the size of time evolved operators in non-relativistic lattice models. Here, we argue that $v_B$ is a state-dependent effective Lieb-Robinson velocity. We study the butterfly velocity in a wide variety of quantum field theories using holography and compare with free particle computations to understand the role of strong coupling. We find that, depending on the way length and time scale, $v_B$ acquires a temperature dependence and decreases towards the IR. We also comment on experimental prospects and on the relationship between the butterfly velocity and signaling.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Complexity, action, and black holes

Our earlier paper "Complexity Equals Action" conjectured that the quantum computational complexity of a holographic state is given by the classical action of a region in the bulk (the "Wheeler-DeWitt" patch). We provide calculations for the results quoted in that paper, explain how it fits into a broader (tensor) network of ideas, and elaborate on the hypothesis that black holes are the fastest computers in nature.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Complexity Equals Action

We conjecture that the quantum complexity of a holographic state is dual to the action of a certain spacetime region that we call a Wheeler-DeWitt patch. We illustrate and test the conjecture in the context of neutral, charged, and rotating black holes in AdS, as well as black holes perturbed with static shells and with shock waves. This conjecture evolved from a previous conjecture that complexity is dual to spatial volume, but appears to be a major improvement over the original. In light of our results, we discuss the hypothesis that black holes are the fastest computers in nature.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Renormalization Group Circuits for Gapless States

We show that a large class of gapless states are renormalization group fixed points in the sense that they can be grown scale by scale using local unitaries. This class of examples includes some theories with dynamical exponent different from one, but does not include conformal field theories. The key property of the states we consider is that the ground state wavefunction is related to the statistical weight of a local statistical model. We give several examples of our construction in the context of Ising magnetism.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

A proposal to probe quantum non-locality of Majorana fermions in tunneling experiments

Topological Majorana fermion (MF) quasiparticles have been recently suggested to exist in semiconductor quantum wires with proximity induced superconductivity and a Zeeman field. Although the experimentally observed zero bias tunneling peak and a fractional ac-Josephson effect can be taken as necessary signatures of MFs, neither of them constitutes a sufficient "smoking gun" experiment. Since one pair of Majorana fermions share a single conventional fermionic degree of freedom, MFs are in a sense fractionalized excitations. Based on this fractionalization we propose a tunneling experiment that furnishes a nearly unique signature of end state MFs in semiconductor quantum wires. In particular, we show that a "teleportation"-like experiment is not enough to distinguish MFs from pairs of MFs, which are equivalent to conventional zero energy states, but our proposed tunneling experiment, in principle, can make this distinction.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Area Law for Gapless States from Local Entanglement Thermodynamics

We demonstrate an area law bound on the ground state entanglement entropy of a wide class of gapless quantum states of matter using a strategy called local entanglement thermodynamics. The bound depends only on thermodynamic data, actually a single exponent, the hyper-scaling violation exponent $θ$. All systems in $d$ spatial dimensions obeying our scaling assumptions and with $θ< d-1$ obey the area law, while systems with $θ= d-1$ can violate the area law at most logarithmically. We also discuss the case of frustration-free Hamiltonians and show that to violate the area law more than logarithmically these systems must have an unusually large number of low energy states. Finally, we make contact with the recently proposed $s$-source framework and argue that $θ$ and $s$ are related by $s=2^θ$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

The Information Theoretic Interpretation of the Length of a Curve

In the context of holographic duality with AdS3 asymptotics, the Ryu-Takayanagi formula states that the entanglement entropy of a subregion is given by the length of a certain bulk geodesic. The entanglement entropy can be operationalized as the entanglement cost necessary to transmit the state of the subregion from one party to another while preserving all correlations with a reference party. The question then arises as to whether the lengths of other bulk curves can be interpreted as entanglement costs for some other information theoretic tasks. Building on recent results showing that the length of more general bulk curves is computed by the differential entropy, we introduce a new task called constrained state merging, whereby the state of the boundary subregion must be transmitted using operations restricted in location and scale in a way determined by the geometry of the bulk curve. Our main result is that the cost to transmit the state of a subregion under the conditions of constrained state merging is given by the differential entropy and hence the signed length of the corresponding bulk curve. When the cost is negative, constrained state merging distills entanglement rather than consuming it. This demonstration has two parts: first, we exhibit a protocol whose cost is the length of the curve and second, we prove that this protocol is optimal in that it uses the minimum amount of entanglement. In order to complete the proof, we additionally demonstrate that single-shot smooth conditional entropies for intervals in 1+1-dimensional conformal field theories with large central charge are well approximated by their von Neumann counterparts. We also revisit the relationship between the differential entropy and the maximum entropy among locally consistent density operators, demonstrating large quantitative discrepancy between the two quantities in conformal field theories.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

All-fermion electrodynamics and fermion number anomaly inflow

We demonstrate that 3+1-dimensional quantum electrodynamics with fermionic charges, fermionic monopoles, and fermionic dyons arises at the edge of a 4+1-dimensional gapped state with short-range entanglement. This state cannot be adiabatically connected to a product state, even in the absence of any symmetry. This provides independent evidence for the obstruction found by arXiv:1306.3238 to a 3+1-dimensional short-distance completion of all-fermion electrodynamics. The non-triviality of the bulk is demonstrated by a novel fermion number anomaly.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Renormalization group constructions of topological quantum liquids and beyond

We give a detailed physical argument for the area law for entanglement entropy in gapped phases of matter arising from local Hamiltonians. Our approach is based on renormalization group (RG) ideas and takes a resource oriented perspective. We report four main results. First, we argue for the "weak area law": any gapped phase with a unique ground state on every closed manifold obeys the area law. Second, we introduce an RG based classification scheme and give a detailed argument that all phases within the classification scheme obey the area law. Third, we define a special sub-class of gapped phases, \textit{topological quantum liquids}, which captures all examples of current physical relevance, and we rigorously show that TQLs obey an area law. Fourth, we show that all topological quantum liquids have MERA representations which achieve unit overlap with the ground state in the thermodynamic limit and which have a bond dimension scaling with system size $L$ as $e^{c \log^{d(1+δ)}(L)}$ for all $δ>0$. For example, we show that chiral phases in $d=2$ dimensions have an approximate MERA with bond dimension $e^{c \log^{2(1+δ)}(L)}$. We discuss extensively a number of subsidiary ideas and results necessary to make the main arguments, including field theory constructions. While our argument for the general area law rests on physically-motived assumptions (which we make explicit) and is therefore not rigorous, we may conclude that "conventional" gapped phases obey the area law and that any gapped phase which violates the area law must be a dragon.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Reconstructing quantum states from local data

We consider the problem of reconstructing global quantum states from local data. Because the reconstruction problem has many solutions in general, we consider the reconstructed state of maximum global entropy consistent with the local data. We show that unique ground states of local Hamiltonians are exactly reconstructed as the maximal entropy state. More generally, we show that if the state in question is a ground state of a local Hamiltonian with a degenerate space of locally indistinguishable ground states, then the maximal entropy state is close to the ground state projector. We also show that local reconstruction is possible for thermal states of local Hamiltonians. Finally, we discuss a procedure to certify that the reconstructed state is close to the true global state. We call the entropy of our reconstructed maximum entropy state the "reconstruction entropy", and we discuss its relation to emergent geometry in the context of holographic duality.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Universality of Gravity from Entanglement

The entanglement "first law" in conformal field theories relates the entanglement entropy for a ball-shaped region to an integral over the same region involving the expectation value of the CFT stress-energy tensor, for infinitesimal perturbations to the CFT vacuum state. In recent work, this was exploited at leading order in $N$ in the context of large N holographic CFTs to show that any geometry dual to a perturbed CFT state must satisfy Einstein's equations linearized about pure AdS. In this note, we investigate the implications of the leading 1/N correction to the exact CFT result. We show that these corrections give rise to the source term for the gravitational equations: for semiclassical bulk states, the expectation value of the bulk stress-energy tensor appears as a source in the linearized equations. In particular, the CFT first law leads to Newton's Law of gravitation and the fact that all sources of stress-energy source the gravitational field. In our derivation, this universality of gravity comes directly from the universality of entanglement (the fact that all degrees of freedom in a subsystem contribute to entanglement entropy).

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Singularity of the London penetration depth at quantum critical points in superconductors

We present a general theory of the singularity in the London penetration depth at symmetry-breaking and topological quantum critical points within a superconducting phase. While the critical exponents, and ratios of amplitudes on the two sides of the transition are universal, an overall sign depends upon the interplay between the critical theory and the underlying Fermi surface. We determine these features for critical points to spin density wave and nematic ordering, and for a topological transition between a superconductor with $\mathbb{Z}_2$ fractionalization and a conventional superconductor. We note implications for recent measurements of the London penetration depth in BaFe$_2$(As$_{1-x}$P$_x$)$_2$ (Hashimoto et al., Science 336, 1554 (2012)).

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Entanglement entropy of compressible holographic matter: loop corrections from bulk fermions

Entanglement entropy is a useful probe of compressible quantum matter because it can detect the existence of Fermi surfaces, both of microscopic fermionic degrees of freedom and of "hidden" gauge charged fermions. Much recent attention has focused on holographic efforts to model strongly interacting compressible matter of interest for condensed matter physics. We complete the entanglement analysis initiated in Huijse {\em et al.}, Phys. Rev. B 85, 035121 (2012) (arXiv:1112.0573) and Ogawa {\em et al.}, JHEP 1, 125 (2012) (arXiv:1111.1023) using the recent proposal of Faulkner {\em et al.} (arXiv:1307.2892) to analyze the entanglement entropy of the visible fermions which arises from bulk loop corrections. We find perfect agreement between holographic and field theoretic calculations.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Entanglement does not generally decrease under renormalization

Renormalization is often described as the removal or "integrating out" of high energy degrees of freedom. In the context of quantum matter, one might suspect that quantum entanglement provides a sharp way to characterize such a loss of degrees of freedom. Indeed, for quantum many-body systems with Lorentz invariance, such entanglement monotones have been proven to exist in one, two, and three spatial dimensions. In each dimension d, a certain term in the entanglement entropy of a d-ball decreases along renormalization group (RG) flows. Given that most quantum many-body systems available in the laboratory are not Lorentz invariant, it is important to generalize these results if possible. In this work we demonstrate the impossibility of a wide variety of such generalizations. We do this by exhibiting a series of counterexamples with understood renormalization group flows which violate entanglement RG monotonicity. We discuss bosons at finite density, fermions at finite density, and majorization in Lorentz invariant theories, among other results.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗