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1. Quantum Fourier Transform Has Small Entanglement

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.4.040318  

   Chen, Jielun; Stoudenmire, EM; White, Steven R (October 2023, PRX Quantum)

   The Quantum Fourier Transform (QFT) is a key component of many important quantum algorithms, most famously as being the essential ingredient in Shor's algorithm for factoring products of primes. Given its remarkable capability, one would think it can introduce large entanglement to qubit systems and would be difficult to simulate classically. While early results showed QFT indeed has maximal operator entanglement, we show that this is entirely due to the bit reversal in the QFT. The core part of the QFT has Schmidt coefficients decaying exponentially quickly, and thus it can only generate a constant amount of entanglement regardless of the number of qubits. In addition, we show the entangling power of the QFT is the same as the time evolution of a Hamiltonian with exponentially decaying interactions, and thus a variant of the area law for dynamics can be used to understand the low entanglement intuitively. Using the low entanglement property of the QFT, we show that classical simulations of the QFT on a matrix product state with low bond dimension only take time linear in the number of qubits, providing a potential speedup over the classical fast Fourier transform (FFT) on many classes of functions. We demonstrate this speedup in test calculations on some simple functions. For data vectors of length 106 to 108, the speedup can be a few orders of magnitude. 

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2. Quantum scrambling of observable algebras

   https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2022-03-11-666  

   Zanardi, Paolo (March 2022, Quantum)

   In this paper we describe an algebraic/geometrical approach to quantum scrambling. Generalized quantum subsystems are described by an hermitian-closed unital subalgebra A of operators evolving through a unitary channel. Qualitatively, quantum scrambling is defined by how the associated physical degrees of freedom get mixed up with others by the dynamics. Quantitatively, this is accomplished by introducing a measure, the geometric algebra anti-correlator (GAAC), of the self-orthogonalization of the commutant of A induced by the dynamics. This approach extends and unifies averaged bipartite OTOC, operator entanglement, coherence generating power and Loschmidt echo. Each of these concepts is indeed recovered by a special choice of A . We compute typical values of GAAC for random unitaries, we prove upper bounds and characterize their saturation. For generic energy spectrum we find explicit expressions for the infinite-time average of the GAAC which encode the relation between A and the full system of Hamiltonian eigenstates. Finally, a notion of A -chaoticity is suggested. 

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3. Density matrix and purity evolution in dissipative two-level systems: II. Relaxation

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D0CP05528J  

   Chatterjee, Sambarta; Makri, Nancy (March 2021, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics)

   null (Ed.)

   We investigate the time evolution of the reduced density matrix (RDM) and its purity in the dynamics of a two-level system coupled to a dissipative harmonic bath, when the system is initially placed in one of its eigenstates. We point out that the symmetry of the initial condition confines the motion of the RDM elements to a one-dimensional subspace and show that the purity always goes through its maximally mixed value at some time during relaxation, but subsequently recovers and (under low-temperature, weakly dissipative conditions) can rise to values that approach unity. These behaviors are quantified through accurate path integral calculations. Under low-temperature, weakly dissipative conditions, we observe unusual, nonmonotonic population dynamics when the two-level system is initially placed in its ground state. We also analyze the origin of the system-bath interactions responsible for the nonmonotonic behavior of purity during relaxation. Our results show that classical dephasing processes arising from site level fluctuations lead to a monotonic decay of purity, and that the quantum mechanical decoherence events associated with spontaneous phonon emission are responsible for the subsequent recovery of purity. Last, we show that coupling with a low-temperature bath can purify a mixed two-level system. In the case of the maximally mixed initial RDM, the purity increases monotonically even during short time. 

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4. Probing Postmeasurement Entanglement without Postselection

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.5.030311  

   Garratt, Samuel J; Altman, Ehud (July 2024, PRX Quantum)

   We study the problem of observing quantum collective phenomena emerging from large numbers of measurements. These phenomena are difficult to observe in conventional experiments because, in order to distinguish the effects of measurement from dephasing, it is necessary to postselect on sets of measurement outcomes with Born probabilities that are exponentially small in the number of measurements performed. An unconventional approach, which avoids this exponential “postselection problem”, is to construct cross-correlations between experimental data and the results of simulations on classical computers. However, these cross-correlations generally have no definite relation to physical quantities. We first show how to incorporate classical shadows into this framework, thereby allowing for the construction of quantum information-theoretic cross-correlations. We then identify cross-correlations that both upper and lower bound the measurement-averaged von Neumann entanglement entropy, as well as cross-correlations that lower bound the measurement-averaged purity and entanglement negativity. These bounds show that experiments can be performed to constrain postmeasurement entanglement without the need for postselection. To illustrate our technique, we consider how it could be used to observe the measurement-induced entanglement transition in Haar-random quantum circuits. We use exact numerical calculations as proxies for quantum simulations and, to highlight the fundamental limitations of classical memory, we construct cross-correlations with tensor-network calculations at finite bond dimension. Our results reveal a signature of measurement-induced criticality that can be observed using a quantum simulator in polynomial time and with polynomial classical memory. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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5. Effective entropy of quantum fields coupled with gravity

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP10(2020)052  

   Dong, Xi; Qi, Xiao-Liang; Shangnan, Zhou; Yang, Zhenbin (October 2020, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   null (Ed.)

   A bstract Entanglement entropy, or von Neumann entropy, quantifies the amount of uncertainty of a quantum state. For quantum fields in curved space, entanglement entropy of the quantum field theory degrees of freedom is well-defined for a fixed background geometry. In this paper, we propose a generalization of the quantum field theory entanglement entropy by including dynamical gravity. The generalized quantity named effective entropy, and its Renyi entropy generalizations, are defined by analytic continuation of a replica calculation. The replicated theory is defined as a gravitational path integral with multiple copies of the original boundary conditions, with a co-dimension-2 brane at the boundary of region we are studying. We discuss different approaches to define the region in a gauge invariant way, and show that the effective entropy satisfies the quantum extremal surface formula. When the quantum fields carry a significant amount of entanglement, the quantum extremal surface can have a topology transition, after which an entanglement island region appears. Our result generalizes the Hubeny-Rangamani-Takayanagi formula of holographic entropy (with quantum corrections) to general geometries without asymptotic AdS boundary, and provides a more solid framework for addressing problems such as the Page curve of evaporating black holes in asymptotic flat spacetime. We apply the formula to two example systems, a closed two-dimensional universe and a four-dimensional maximally extended Schwarzchild black hole. We discuss the analog of the effective entropy in random tensor network models, which provides more concrete understanding of quantum information properties in general dynamical geometries. We show that, in absence of a large boundary like in AdS space case, it is essential to introduce ancilla that couples to the original system, in order for correctly characterizing quantum states and correlation functions in the random tensor network. Using the superdensity operator formalism, we study the system with ancilla and show how quantum information in the entanglement island can be reconstructed in a state-dependent and observer-dependent map. We study the closed universe (without spatial boundary) case and discuss how it is related to open universe. 

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