arXiv subjects

Nicholas Hunter-Jones

Publications and source records attributed to Nicholas Hunter-Jones.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Quantum Complexity Dynamics for Disjoint Subsystems

Quantum complexity has emerged as a natural probe of chaos, thermalization, and the black hole interior on timescales long after local observables have equilibrated. However, its time evolution has been studied almost exclusively in subsystems confined to a single connected region. We show, using complementary tools from holography and random quantum circuits, that noncontiguous subsystems composed of multiple disjoint regions give rise to qualitatively new physics compared to the contiguous case. First, at finite temperature, a subsystem occupying less than half of the total system can carry high complexity at late times, even as the complexity of its larger complement remains low. This inversion of the usual hierarchy is intrinsically thermal: it vanishes in the infinite-temperature limit, which is the regime modeled by random quantum circuits. Second, if a subsystem's complexity equilibrates at an early time, then fragmenting it into $m$ disjoint components can further reduce this timescale by a factor of $m$, a phenomenon we exhibit in both holography and random quantum circuits. These results not only sharpen the correspondence between geometric and computational notions of complexity, but also motivate the search for novel complexity phenomena in quantum dynamics.

hep-th↗

arXiv2026

Ideal random quantum circuits pass the LXEB test

We show that noiseless random quantum circuits pass the linear cross-entropy benchmark (LXEB) test with high probability. If the circuits are linear depth, and thus form unitary 4-designs, the LXEB test is passed with probability $1-O(1/\sqrt{k})$, where $k$ is the number of independently drawn samples from the output distribution of the random circuit. If the circuits are of depth $\tilde O(n^2)$, and thus form unitary $n$-designs, the LXEB test is passed with probability $1-O(e^{-k \log(n)/n})$. In proving our results, we show strong concentration of the random circuit collision probability at linear depth and establish that the tails of the distribution of random circuit output probabilities start to resemble Porter-Thomas at near-quadratic depths. Our analysis employs higher moments and high-degree approximate designs.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Randomization Times under Quantum Chaotic Hamiltonian Evolution

Randomness generation through quantum-chaotic evolution underpins foundational questions in statistical mechanics and applications across quantum information science, including benchmarking, tomography, metrology, and demonstrations of quantum computational advantage. While statistical mechanics successfully captures the temporal averages of local observables, understanding randomness at the level of higher statistical moments remains a daunting challenge, with analytic progress largely confined to random quantum circuit models or fine-tuned systems exhibiting space-time duality. Here we study how much randomness can be dynamically generated by generic quantum-chaotic evolution under physical, non-random Hamiltonians. Combining theoretical insights with numerical simulations, we show that for broad classes of initially unentangled states, the dynamics become effectively Haar-random well before the system can ergodically explore the physically accessible Hilbert space. Both local and highly nonlocal observables, including entanglement measures, equilibrate to their Haar expectation values and fluctuations on polynomial timescales with remarkably high numerical precision, and with the fastest randomization occurring in regions of parameter space previously identified as maximally chaotic. Interestingly, this effective randomization can occur on timescales linear in system size, suggesting that the sub-ballistic growth of Renyi entropies typically observed in systems with conservation laws can be bypassed in non-random Hamiltonians with an appropriate choice of initial conditions.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2025

Sharp Transitions for Subsystem Complexity

The circuit complexity of time-evolved pure quantum states grows linearly in time for an exponentially long time. This behavior has been proven in certain models, is conjectured to hold for generic quantum many-body systems, and is believed to be dual to the long-time growth of black hole interiors in AdS/CFT. Achieving a similar understanding for mixed states remains an important problem. In this work, we study the circuit complexity of time-evolved subsystems of pure quantum states. We find that for greater-than-half subsystem sizes, the complexity grows linearly in time for an exponentially long time, similarly to that of the full state. However, for less-than-half subsystem sizes, the complexity rises and then falls, returning to low complexity as the subsystem equilibrates. Notably, the transition between these two regimes occurs sharply at half system size. We use holographic duality to map out this picture of subsystem complexity dynamics and rigorously prove the existence of the sharp transition in random quantum circuits. Furthermore, we use holography to predict features of complexity growth at finite temperature that lie beyond the reach of techniques based on random quantum circuits. In particular, at finite temperature, we argue for an additional sharp transition at a critical less-than-half subsystem size. Below this critical value, the subsystem complexity saturates nearly instantaneously rather than exhibiting a rise and fall. This novel phenomenon, as well as an analogous transition above half system size, provides a target for future studies based on rigorous methods.

hep-th↗

arXiv2025

Two classes of quantum spin systems that are gapped on any bounded-degree graph

We study translation-invariant quantum spin Hamiltonians on general graphs with non-commuting interactions either given by (i) a random rank-$1$ projection or (ii) Haar projectors. For (i), we prove that the Hamiltonian is gapped on any bounded-degree graph with high probability at large local dimension. For (ii), we obtain a gap for sufficiently large local dimension. Our results provide examples where the folklore belief that typical translation-invariant Hamiltonians are gapped can be proved, which extends a result by Bravyi and Gosset from 1D qubit chains with rank-$1$ interactions to general bounded-degree graphs. We derive the gaps by analytically verifying generalized Knabe-type finite-size criteria that apply to any bounded-degree graph.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Demonstrating an unconditional separation between quantum and classical information resources

A longstanding goal in quantum information science is to demonstrate quantum computations that cannot be feasibly reproduced on a classical computer. Such demonstrations mark major milestones: they showcase fine control over quantum systems and are prerequisites for useful quantum computation. To date, quantum advantage has been demonstrated, for example, through violations of Bell inequalities and sampling-based quantum supremacy experiments. However, both forms of advantage come with important caveats: Bell tests are not computationally difficult tasks, and the classical hardness of sampling experiments relies on unproven complexity-theoretic assumptions. Here we demonstrate an unconditional quantum advantage in information resources required for a computational task, realized on Quantinuum's H1-1 trapped-ion quantum computer operating at a median two-qubit partial-entangler fidelity of 99.941(7)%. We construct a task for which the most space-efficient classical algorithm provably requires between 62 and 382 bits of memory, and solve it using only 12 qubits. Our result provides the most direct evidence yet that currently existing quantum processors can generate and manipulate entangled states of sufficient complexity to access the exponentiality of Hilbert space. This form of quantum advantage -- which we call quantum information supremacy -- represents a new benchmark in quantum computing, one that does not rely on unproven conjectures.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Late-time ensembles of quantum states in quantum chaotic systems

We study the universal structure of late-time ensembles obtained from unitary dynamics in quantum chaotic systems with symmetries, such as charge or energy conservation. We find that although quantum states do not ergodically explore the entire Hilbert space at late times, the late-time ensemble typically becomes indistinguishable from Haar-random states in the thermodynamic limit at the level of finite statistical moments. Importantly, our results apply to initial states easy to prepare in ongoing experiments -- specifically, product states -- that lie in the middle of the spectrum of quantum chaotic systems. We show that these states typically exhibit not only the same late-time ensemble average as Haar-random states, but also the same state-to-state fluctuations and higher statistical moments. In other words, there is no measurement -- whether local or nonlocal -- at the level of finite statistical moments that can tell that the states are not exploring the entire Hilbert space. Interestingly, within the class of low-entanglement initial states, we also find atypical initial conditions in the middle of the spectrum of Hamiltonians known to be "maximally chaotic". Such atypical states have smaller variance of the symmetry operator than Haar-random states and evolve into non-universal ensembles that can be distinguished from the Haar ensemble by simple measurements or subsystem properties. In the limiting case of initial states with negligible variance of the symmetry operator (e.g., states with fixed particle number or energy eigenstates), the late-time ensemble has universal behavior captured by constrained random-state ensembles. Our results reveal that an extremely high level of quantum state randomness can still be achieved even when dynamics is constrained by symmetries.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2023

Local random quantum circuits form approximate designs on arbitrary architectures

We consider random quantum circuits (RQC) on arbitrary connected graphs whose edges determine the allowed $2$-qudit interactions. Prior work has established that such $n$-qudit circuits with local dimension $q$ on 1D, complete, and $D$-dimensional graphs form approximate unitary designs, that is, they generate unitaries from distributions close to the Haar measure on the unitary group $U(q^n)$ after polynomially many gates. Here, we extend those results by proving that RQCs comprised of $O(\mathrm{poly}(n,k))$ gates on a wide class of graphs form approximate unitary $k$-designs. We prove that RQCs on graphs with spanning trees of bounded degree and height form $k$-designs after $O(|E|n\,\mathrm{poly}(k))$ gates, where $|E|$ is the number of edges in the graph. Furthermore, we identify larger classes of graphs for which RQCs generate approximate designs in polynomial circuit size. For $k \leq 4$, we show that RQCs on graphs of certain maximum degrees form designs after $O(|E|n)$ gates, providing explicit constants. We determine our circuit size bounds from the spectral gaps of local Hamiltonians. To that end, we extend the finite-size (or Knabe) method for bounding gaps of frustration-free Hamiltonians on regular graphs to arbitrary connected graphs. We further introduce a new method based on the Detectability Lemma for determining the spectral gaps of Hamiltonians on arbitrary graphs. Our methods have wider applicability as the first method provides a succinct alternative proof of [Commun. Math. Phys. 291, 257 (2009)] and the second method proves that RQCs on any connected architecture form approximate designs in quasi-polynomial circuit size.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Saturation and recurrence of quantum complexity in random local quantum dynamics

Quantum complexity is a measure of the minimal number of elementary operations required to approximately prepare a given state or unitary channel. Recently, this concept has found applications beyond quantum computing -- in studying the dynamics of quantum many-body systems and the long-time properties of AdS black holes. In this context Brown and Susskind \cite{BrownSusskind17} conjectured that the complexity of a chaotic quantum system grows linearly in time up to times exponential in the system size, saturating at a maximal value, and remaining maximally complex until undergoing recurrences at doubly-exponential times. In this work we prove the saturation and recurrence of complexity in two models of chaotic time evolutions based on (i) random local quantum circuits and (ii) stochastic local Hamiltonian evolution. Our results advance an understanding of the long-time behaviour of chaotic quantum systems and could shed light on the physics of black hole interiors. From a technical perspective our results are based on establishing new quantitative connections between the Haar measure and high-degree approximate designs, as well as the fact that random quantum circuits of sufficiently high depth converge to approximate designs.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Random quantum circuits anti-concentrate in log depth

We consider quantum circuits consisting of randomly chosen two-local gates and study the number of gates needed for the distribution over measurement outcomes for typical circuit instances to be anti-concentrated, roughly meaning that the probability mass is not too concentrated on a small number of measurement outcomes. Understanding the conditions for anti-concentration is important for determining which quantum circuits are difficult to simulate classically, as anti-concentration has been in some cases an ingredient of mathematical arguments that simulation is hard and in other cases a necessary condition for easy simulation. Our definition of anti-concentration is that the expected collision probability, that is, the probability that two independently drawn outcomes will agree, is only a constant factor larger than if the distribution were uniform. We show that when the 2-local gates are each drawn from the Haar measure (or any two-design), at least $Ω(n \log(n))$ gates (and thus $Ω(\log(n))$ circuit depth) are needed for this condition to be met on an $n$ qudit circuit. In both the case where the gates are nearest-neighbor on a 1D ring and the case where gates are long-range, we show $O(n \log(n))$ gates are also sufficient, and we precisely compute the optimal constant prefactor for the $n \log(n)$. The technique we employ relies upon a mapping from the expected collision probability to the partition function of an Ising-like classical statistical mechanical model, which we manage to bound using stochastic and combinatorial techniques.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Random quantum circuits transform local noise into global white noise

We study the distribution over measurement outcomes of noisy random quantum circuits in the low-fidelity regime. We show that, for local noise that is sufficiently weak and unital, correlations (measured by the linear cross-entropy benchmark) between the output distribution $p_{\text{noisy}}$ of a generic noisy circuit instance and the output distribution $p_{\text{ideal}}$ of the corresponding noiseless instance shrink exponentially with the expected number of gate-level errors, as $F=\text{exp}(-2sε\pm O(sε^2))$, where $ε$ is the probability of error per circuit location and $s$ is the number of two-qubit gates. Furthermore, if the noise is incoherent, the output distribution approaches the uniform distribution $p_{\text{unif}}$ at precisely the same rate and can be approximated as $p_{\text{noisy}} \approx Fp_{\text{ideal}} + (1-F)p_{\text{unif}}$, that is, local errors are scrambled by the random quantum circuit and contribute only white noise (uniform output). Importantly, we upper bound the total variation error (averaged over random circuit instance) in this approximation as $O(Fε\sqrt{s})$, so the "white-noise approximation" is meaningful when $ε\sqrt{s} \ll 1$, a quadratically weaker condition than the $εs\ll 1$ requirement to maintain high fidelity. The bound applies when the circuit size satisfies $s \geq Ω(n\log(n))$ and the inverse error rate satisfies $ε^{-1} \geq \tildeΩ(n)$. The white-noise approximation is useful for salvaging the signal from a noisy quantum computation; it was an underlying assumption in complexity-theoretic arguments that low-fidelity random quantum circuits cannot be efficiently sampled classically. Our method is based on a map from second-moment quantities in random quantum circuits to expectation values of certain stochastic processes for which we compute upper and lower bounds.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Spectral decoupling in many-body quantum chaos

We argue that in a large class of disordered quantum many-body systems, the late time dynamics of time-dependent correlation functions is captured by random matrix theory, specifically the energy eigenvalue statistics of the corresponding ensemble of disordered Hamiltonians. We find that late time correlation functions approximately factorize into a time-dependent piece, which only depends on spectral statistics of the Hamiltonian ensemble, and a time-independent piece, which only depends on the data of the constituent operators of the correlation function. We call this phenomenon "spectral decoupling," which signifies a dynamical onset of random matrix theory in correlation functions. A key diagnostic of spectral decoupling is $k$-invariance, which we refine and study in detail. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of symmetries, and connections between $k$-invariance, scrambling, and OTOCs. Disordered Pauli spin systems, as well as the SYK model and its variants, provide a rich source of disordered quantum many-body systems with varied symmetries, and we study $k$-invariance in these models with a combination of analytics and numerics.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

Improved spectral gaps for random quantum circuits: large local dimensions and all-to-all interactions

Random quantum circuits are a central concept in quantum information theory with applications ranging from demonstrations of quantum computational advantage to descriptions of scrambling in strongly-interacting systems and black holes. The utility of random quantum circuits in these settings stems from their ability to rapidly generate quantum pseudo-randomness. In a seminal paper by Brandão, Harrow, and Horodecki, it was proven that the $t$-th moment operator of local random quantum circuits on $n$ qudits with local dimension $q$ has a spectral gap of at least $Ω(n^{-1}t^{-5-3.1/\log(q)})$, which implies that they are efficient constructions of approximate unitary designs. As a first result, we use Knabe bounds for the spectral gaps of frustration-free Hamiltonians to show that $1D$ random quantum circuits have a spectral gap scaling as $Ω(n^{-1})$, provided that $t$ is small compared to the local dimension: $t^2\leq O(q)$. This implies a (nearly) linear scaling of the circuit depth in the design order $t$. Our second result is an unconditional spectral gap bounded below by $Ω(n^{-1}\log^{-1}(n) t^{-α(q)})$ for random quantum circuits with all-to-all interactions. This improves both the $n$ and $t$ scaling in design depth for the non-local model. We show this by proving a recursion relation for the spectral gaps involving an auxiliary random walk. Lastly, we solve the smallest non-trivial case exactly and combine with numerics and Knabe bounds to improve the constants involved in the spectral gap for small values of $t$.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Fluctuations of subsystem entropies at late times

We study the fluctuations of subsystem entropies in closed quantum many-body systems after thermalization. Using a combination of analytics and numerics for both random quantum circuits and Hamiltonian dynamics, we find that the statistics of such entropy fluctuations is drastically different than in the classical setting. For instance, shortly after a system thermalizes, the probability of entropy fluctuations for a subregion is suppressed in the dimension of the Hilbert space of the complementary subregion. This suppression becomes increasingly stringent as a function of time, ultimately depending on the exponential of the Hilbert space dimension, until extremely late times when the amount of suppression saturates. We also use our results to estimate the total number of rare fluctuations at large timescales. We find that the "Boltzmann brain" paradox is largely ameliorated in quantum many-body systems, in contrast with the classical setting.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Models of quantum complexity growth

The concept of quantum complexity has far-reaching implications spanning theoretical computer science, quantum many-body physics, and high energy physics. The quantum complexity of a unitary transformation or quantum state is defined as the size of the shortest quantum computation that executes the unitary or prepares the state. It is reasonable to expect that the complexity of a quantum state governed by a chaotic many-body Hamiltonian grows linearly with time for a time that is exponential in the system size; however, because it is hard to rule out a short-cut that improves the efficiency of a computation, it is notoriously difficult to derive lower bounds on quantum complexity for particular unitaries or states without making additional assumptions. To go further, one may study more generic models of complexity growth. We provide a rigorous connection between complexity growth and unitary $k$-designs, ensembles which capture the randomness of the unitary group. This connection allows us to leverage existing results about design growth to draw conclusions about the growth of complexity. We prove that local random quantum circuits generate unitary transformations whose complexity grows linearly for a long time, mirroring the behavior one expects in chaotic quantum systems and verifying conjectures by Brown and Susskind. Moreover, our results apply under a strong definition of quantum complexity based on optimal distinguishing measurements.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

Unitary designs from statistical mechanics in random quantum circuits

Random quantum circuits are proficient information scramblers and efficient generators of randomness, rapidly approximating moments of the unitary group. We study the convergence of local random quantum circuits to unitary $k$-designs. Employing a statistical mechanical mapping, we give an exact expression of the distance to forming an approximate design as a lattice partition function. In the statistical mechanics model, the approach to randomness has a simple interpretation in terms of domain walls extending through the circuit. We analytically compute the second moment, showing that random circuits acting on $n$ qudits form approximate 2-designs in $O(n)$ depth, as is known. Furthermore, we argue that random circuits form approximate unitary $k$-designs in $O(nk)$ depth and are thus essentially optimal in both $n$ and $k$. We can show this in the limit of large local dimension, but more generally rely on a conjecture about the dominance of certain domain wall configurations.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Operator growth in random quantum circuits with symmetry

We study random quantum circuits with symmetry, where the local 2-site unitaries are drawn from a quotient or subgroup of the full unitary group $U(d)$. Random quantum circuits are minimal models of local quantum chaotic dynamics and can be used to study operator growth and the emergence of diffusive hydrodynamics. We derive the transition probabilities for the stochastic process governing the growth of operators in four classes of symmetric random circuits. We then compute the butterfly velocities and diffusion constants for a spreading operator by solving a simple random walk in each class of circuits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Chaos and random matrices in supersymmetric SYK

We use random matrix theory to explore late-time chaos in supersymmetric quantum mechanical systems. Motivated by the recent study of supersymmetric SYK models and their random matrix classification, we consider the Wishart-Laguerre unitary ensemble and compute the spectral form factors and frame potentials to quantify chaos and randomness. Compared to the Gaussian ensembles, we observe the absence of a dip regime in the form factor and a slower approach to Haar-random dynamics. We find agreement between our random matrix analysis and predictions from the supersymmetric SYK model, and discuss the implications for supersymmetric chaotic systems.

hep-th↗