arXiv subjects

Shankar Balasubramanian

Publications and source records attributed to Shankar Balasubramanian.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Depth-1 expanders on the unitary group and applications

We construct a constant-degree and constant-gap quantum expander on $n$ qubits where each unitary can be implemented by a depth-$1$ and 1D circuit of Pauli or CNOT gates. We provide two applications of this expander. First, we use it to construct a family of frustration-free 1D Hamiltonians whose ground states obey the entanglement-gap relation $S = \Theta(\Delta^{-1/2})$; this is believed to be optimal, but achieving it had been open. Second, we use it to provide a streaming protocol that tests for closeness to a class of 1D volume-law entangled states. Moreover, we extend our quantum expander to a constant-degree and constant-gap expander on the unitary group where each unitary is a single $T$ gate, a single $T^{\dagger}$ gate, or a depth-$1$ Clifford circuit. This implies that a random sequence of unitaries from the expander yields a gapped walk on a dense subgroup of the unitary group. This improves upon previous work by Bourgain and Gamburd which did not control the dependence of the gap on the dimension.

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arXiv2026

A passive self-correcting quantum memory in three dimensions

We construct a 3D Pauli stabilizer Hamiltonian whose ground state space can encode a qubit for exponential time when coupled to a bath at non-zero temperature. Our construction recursively applies a sequence of transformations to a seed Hamiltonian that increases the memory lifetime of the encoded qubit while maintaining geometric locality in $\mathbb{R}^3$.

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arXiv2025

Exponentially slow thermalization in 1D fragmented dynamics

We investigate the thermalization dynamics of 1D systems with local constraints coupled to an infinite temperature bath at one boundary. The coupling to the bath eventually erases the effects of the constraints, causing the system to tend towards a maximally mixed state at long times. We show that for a large class of local constraints, the time at which thermalization occurs can be extremely long. In particular, we present evidence for the following conjecture: when the constrained dynamics displays strong Hilbert space fragmentation, the thermalization time diverges exponentially with system size. We show that this conjecture holds for a wide range of dynamical constraints, including dipole-conserving dynamics, the $tJ_z$ model, and a large class of group-based dynamics, and relate a general proof of our conjecture to a different conjecture about the existence of certain expander graphs.

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arXiv2024

A local automaton for the 2D toric code

We construct a local decoder for the 2D toric code using ideas from the hierarchical classical cellular automata of Tsirelson and G\'acs. Our decoder is a circuit of strictly local quantum operations preserving a logical state for exponential time in the presence of circuit-level noise without the need for non-local classical computation or communication. Our construction is not translation invariant in spacetime, but can be made time-translation invariant in 3D with stacks of 2D toric codes. This solves the open problem of constructing a local topological quantum memory below four dimensions.

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arXiv2023

Glassy word problems: ultraslow relaxation, Hilbert space jamming, and computational complexity

We introduce a family of local models of dynamics based on ``word problems'' from computer science and group theory, for which we can place rigorous lower bounds on relaxation timescales. These models can be regarded either as random circuit or local Hamiltonian dynamics, and include many familiar examples of constrained dynamics as special cases. The configuration space of these models splits into dynamically disconnected sectors, and for initial states to relax, they must ``work out'' the other states in the sector to which they belong. When this problem has a high time complexity, relaxation is slow. In some of the cases we study, this problem also has high space complexity. When the space complexity is larger than the system size, an unconventional type of jamming transition can occur, whereby a system of a fixed size is not ergodic, but can be made ergodic by appending a large reservoir of sites in a trivial product state. This manifests itself in a new type of Hilbert space fragmentation that we call fragile fragmentation. We present explicit examples where slow relaxation and jamming strongly modify the hydrodynamics of conserved densities. In one example, density modulations of wavevector $q$ exhibit almost no relaxation until times $O(\exp(1/q))$, at which point they abruptly collapse. We also comment on extensions of our results to higher dimensions.

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arXiv2023

Exponential speedups for quantum walks in random hierarchical graphs

There are few known exponential speedups for quantum algorithms and these tend to fall into even fewer families. One speedup that has mostly resisted generalization is the use of quantum walks to traverse the welded-tree graph, due to Childs, Cleve, Deotto, Farhi, Gutmann, and Spielman. We show how to generalize this to a large class of hierarchical graphs in which the vertices are grouped into "supervertices" which are arranged according to a $d$-dimensional lattice. Supervertices can have different sizes, and edges between supervertices correspond to random connections between their constituent vertices. The hitting times of quantum walks on these graphs are related to the localization properties of zero modes in certain disordered tight binding Hamiltonians. The speedups range from superpolynomial to exponential, depending on the underlying dimension and the random graph model. We also provide concrete realizations of these hierarchical graphs, and introduce a general method for constructing graphs with efficient quantum traversal times using graph sparsification.

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arXiv2023

Quantum computation from dynamic automorphism codes

We propose a new model of quantum computation comprised of low-weight measurement sequences that simultaneously encode logical information, enable error correction, and apply logical gates. These measurement sequences constitute a new class of quantum error-correcting codes generalizing Floquet codes, which we call dynamic automorphism (DA) codes. We construct an explicit example, the DA color code, which is assembled from short measurement sequences that can realize all 72 automorphisms of the 2D color code. On a stack of $N$ triangular patches, the DA color code encodes $N$ logical qubits and can implement the full logical Clifford group by a sequence of two- and, more rarely, three-qubit Pauli measurements. We also make the first step towards universal quantum computation with DA codes by introducing a 3D DA color code and showing that a non-Clifford logical gate can be realized by adaptive two-qubit measurements.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

2D Hamiltonians with exotic bipartite and topological entanglement

We present a class of exactly solvable 2D models whose ground states violate conventional beliefs about entanglement scaling in quantum matter. These beliefs are (i) that area law entanglement scaling originates from local correlations proximate to the boundary of the entanglement cut, and (ii) that ground state entanglement in 2D Hamiltonians cannot violate area law scaling by more than a multiplicative logarithmic factor. We explicitly present two classes of models defined by local, translation-invariant Hamiltonians, whose ground states can be exactly written as weighted superpositions of framed loop configurations. The first class of models exhibits area-law scaling, but of an intrinsically nonlocal origin so that the topological entanglement entropy scales with subsystem sizes. The second class of models has a rich ground state phase diagram that includes a phase exhibiting volume law entanglement.

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arXiv2022

Exact Quantum Algorithms for Quantum Phase Recognition: Renormalization Group and Error Correction

We explore the relationship between renormalization group (RG) flow and error correction by constructing quantum algorithms that exactly recognize 1D symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases protected by finite internal Abelian symmetries. For each SPT phase, our algorithm runs a quantum circuit which emulates RG flow: an arbitrary input ground state wavefunction in the phase is mapped to a unique minimally-entangled reference state, thereby allowing for efficient phase identification. This construction is enabled by viewing a generic input state in the phase as a collection of coherent `errors' applied to the reference state, and engineering a quantum circuit to efficiently detect and correct such errors. Importantly, the error correction threshold is proven to coincide exactly with the phase boundary. We discuss the implications of our results in the context of condensed matter physics, machine learning, and near-term quantum algorithms.

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arXiv2022

Floquet codes without parent subsystem codes

We propose a new class of error-correcting dynamic codes in two and three dimensions that has no explicit connection to any parent subsystem code. The two-dimensional code, which we call the CSS honeycomb code, is geometrically similar to that of the honeycomb code by Hastings and Haah, and also dynamically embeds an instantaneous toric code. However, unlike the honeycomb code it possesses an explicit CSS structure and its gauge checks do not form a subsystem code. Nevertheless, we show that our dynamic protocol conserves logical information and possesses a threshold for error correction. We generalize this construction to three dimensions and obtain a code that fault-tolerantly alternates between realizing two type-I fracton models, the checkerboard and the X-cube model. Finally, we show the compatibility of our CSS honeycomb code protocol and the honeycomb code by showing the possibility of randomly switching between the two protocols without information loss while still measuring error syndromes. We call this more general aperiodic structure `dynamic tree codes', which we also generalize to three dimensions. We construct a probabilistic finite automaton prescription that generates dynamic tree codes correcting any single-qubit Pauli errors and can be viewed as a step towards the development of practical fault-tolerant random codes.

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arXiv2022

Interplay of symmetry breaking and deconfinement in 3D quantum vertex models

We construct a broad class of frustration-free quantum vertex models in 3+1D whose ground states are weighted superpositions of classical 3D vertex model configurations. Our results are illustrated for diamond, cubic, and BCC lattices, but hold for general 3D lattices with even coordination number. The corresponding classical vertex models have a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge constraint enriched with a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ global symmetry. We study the interplay between these symmetries by exploiting exact wavefunction dualities and effective field theories. We find an exact gapless point which by duality is related to the Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) point of $U(1)$ quantum spin liquids. At this point, both the symmetry breaking and deconfinement order parameters exhibit long range order. The gapless point is additionally a self-dual point of a second duality that maps the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ deconfined and $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry-broken phases to one another. For the BCC lattice vertex model, we find that gapless point is proximate to an unusual intermediate phase where symmetry breaking and deconfinement coexist.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Classical vertex model dualities in a family of 2D frustrated quantum antiferromagnets

We study a general class of easy-axis spin models on a lattice of corner sharing even-sided polygons with all-to-all interactions within a plaquette. The low energy description corresponds to a quantum dimer model on a dual lattice of even coordination number with a multi dimer constraint. At an appropriately constructed frustration-free Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) point, the ground state wavefunction can be exactly mapped onto a classical vertex model on the dual lattice. When the dual lattice is bipartite, the vertex models are bonded and are self dual under Wegner's duality, with the self dual point corresponding to the RK point of the original multi-dimer model. We argue that the self dual point is a critical point based on known exact solutions to some of the vertex models. When the dual lattice is non-bipartite, the vertex model is arrowed, and we use numerical methods to argue that there is no phase transition as a function of the vertex weights. Motivated by these wavefunction dualities, we construct two other distinct families of frustration-free Hamiltonians whose ground states can be mapped onto these vertex models. Many of these RK Hamiltonians provably host $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topologically ordered phases.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Solitons in lattice field theories via tight-binding supersymmetry

Reflectionless potentials play an important role in constructing exact solutions to classical dynamical systems, non-perturbative solutions of various large-N field theories, and closely related solitonic solutions to the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations in the theory of superconductivity. These solutions rely on the inverse scattering method, which reduces these seemingly unrelated problems to identifying reflectionless potentials of an auxiliary one-dimensional quantum scattering problem. There are several ways of constructing these potentials, one of which is quantum mechanical supersymmetry (SUSY). In this paper, motivated by recent experimental platforms, we generalize this framework to develop a theory of solitons in lattice versions of interacting field theories. Our analysis hinges on the use of trace identities, which are relations connecting the potential of an equation of motion to the scattering data. For a discrete Schr\"odinger operator, such trace identities are well known, and we derive a new set of identities for the discrete Dirac operator. We then use these in a lattice Gross-Neveu and chiral Gross-Neveu (Nambu-Jona-Lasinio) model to show that lattice solitons correspond to reflectionless potentials associated with the discrete scattering problem. These models are of significance as they are equivalent to a mean-field theory of a lattice superconductor. To explicitly construct these solitons, we generalize supersymmetric quantum mechanics to tight-binding models. We show that a matrix transformation exists that maps a tight-binding model to an isospectral one which shares the same structure and scattering properties. The corresponding soliton solutions have both modulated hopping and onsite potential; we explicitly compute both topological and non-topological soliton solutions as well as bound state spectra in the aforementioned models.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Many-Body Localization Landscape

We generalize the notion of "localization landscape," introduced by M. Filoche and S. Mayboroda [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 109, 14761 (2012)] for the single-particle Schrodinger operator, to a wide class of interacting many-body Hamiltonians. The many-body localization landscape (MBLL) is defined on a graph in the Fock space, whose nodes represent the basis vectors in the Fock space and edges correspond to transitions between the nodes connected by the hopping term in the Hamiltonian. It is shown that in analogy to the single-particle case, the inverse MBLL plays the role of an effective potential in the Fock space. We construct a generalized discrete Agmon metric and prove Agmon inequalities and locality theorems on the Fock-state graph to obtain bounds on the exponential decay of the many-body wave-functions in the Fock space. Using the MBLL and the locator expansion, we provide considerable analytical evidence for the existence of many-body localization for a wide-class of lattice models in any physical dimension for at least a part of their Hilbert space. The key to this argument is the observation that in sharp contrast to the conventional locator expansion for the Green's function, the locator expansion for the landscape function contains no resonances. For short-range hopping, which limits the connectivity of the Fock-state graph, the locator series is proven to be convergent and bounded by a simple geometric series. This, in combination with the Agmon inequalities and locality theorems, indicates that localization should survive weak interactions and weak hopping for a subset of states in the Hilbert space, but cannot prove or rule out localization of the other states. We also qualitatively discuss potential breakdown of the locator expansion in the MBLL for long-range hopping and the appearance of a mobility edge in higher-dimensional theories.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2016

Exact time evolution of the asymmetric Hubbard dimer

We examine the time evolution of an asymmetric Hubbard dimer, which has a different on-site interaction on the two sites. The Hamiltonian has a time-dependent hopping term, which can be employed to describe an electric field (which creates a Hamiltonian with complex matrix elements), or it can describe a modulation of the lattice (which has real matrix elements). By examining the symmetries under spin and pseudospin, we show that the former case involves at most a 3 x 3 block---it can be mapped onto the time evolution of a time-independent Hamiltonian, so the dynamics can be evaluated analytically and exactly (by solving a nontrivial cubic equation). We also show that the latter case reduces to at most 2 x 2 blocks, and hence the time evolution for a single Trotter step can be determined exactly, but the time evolution generically requires a Trotter product.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Bang-bang shortcut to adiabaticity in trapped ion quantum simulators

We model the bang-bang optimization protocol as a shortcut to adiabaticity in the ground-state preparation of an ion-trap-based quantum simulator. Compared to a locally adiabatic evolution, the bang-bang protocol produces a somewhat lower ground-state probability, but its implementation is so much simpler than the locally adiabatic approach, that it remains an excellent choice to use for maximizing ground-state preparation in systems that cannot be solved with conventional computers. We describe how one can optimize the shortcut and provide specific details for how it can be implemented with current ion-trap-based quantum simulators.

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