%0 Journal Article %J Physical Review B %D 2023 %T Critical phase and spin sharpening in SU(2)-symmetric monitored quantum circuits %A Shayan Majidy %A Utkarsh Agrawal %A Sarang Gopalakrishnan %A Andrew C. Potter %A Romain Vasseur %A Nicole Yunger Halpern %X

Monitored quantum circuits exhibit entanglement transitions at certain measurement rates. Such a transition separates phases characterized by how much information an observer can learn from the measurement outcomes. We study SU(2)-symmetric monitored quantum circuits, using exact numerics and a mapping onto an effective statistical-mechanics model. Due to the symmetry's non-Abelian nature, measuring qubit pairs allows for nontrivial entanglement scaling even in the measurement-only limit. We find a transition between a volume-law entangled phase and a critical phase whose diffusive purification dynamics emerge from the non-Abelian symmetry. Additionally, we numerically identify a "spin-sharpening transition." On one side is a phase in which the measurements can efficiently identify the system's total spin quantum number; on the other side is a phase in which measurements cannot.

%B Physical Review B %V 108 %8 8/17/2023 %G eng %U https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.13356 %R 10.1103/physrevb.108.054307 %0 Journal Article %J Physical Review B %D 2023 %T Non-Abelian symmetry can increase entanglement entropy %A Shayan Majidy %A Aleksander Lasek %A David A. Huse %A Nicole Yunger Halpern %X

The pillars of quantum theory include entanglement and operators' failure to commute. The Page curve quantifies the bipartite entanglement of a many-body system in a random pure state. This entanglement is known to decrease if one constrains extensive observables that commute with each other (Abelian ``charges''). Non-Abelian charges, which fail to commute with each other, are of current interest in quantum thermodynamics. For example, noncommuting charges were shown to reduce entropy-production rates and may enhance finite-size deviations from eigenstate thermalization. Bridging quantum thermodynamics to many-body physics, we quantify the effects of charges' noncommutation -- of a symmetry's non-Abelian nature -- on Page curves. First, we construct two models that are closely analogous but differ in whether their charges commute. We show analytically and numerically that the noncommuting-charge case has more entanglement. Hence charges' noncommutation can promote entanglement.

%B Physical Review B %V 107 %8 1/3/2023 %G eng %U https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.14303 %R 10.1103/physrevb.107.045102 %0 Journal Article %J Nature Reviews Physics %D 2023 %T Noncommuting conserved charges in quantum thermodynamics and beyond %A Shayan Majidy %A William F. Braasch %A Aleksander Lasek %A Twesh Upadhyaya %A Amir Kalev %A Nicole Yunger Halpern %X

Thermodynamic systems typically conserve quantities ("charges") such as energy and particle number. The charges are often assumed implicitly to commute with each other. Yet quantum phenomena such as uncertainty relations rely on observables' failure to commute. How do noncommuting charges affect thermodynamic phenomena? This question, upon arising at the intersection of quantum information theory and thermodynamics, spread recently across many-body physics. Charges' noncommutation has been found to invalidate derivations of the thermal state's form, decrease entropy production, conflict with the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, and more. This Perspective surveys key results in, opportunities for, and work adjacent to the quantum thermodynamics of noncommuting charges. Open problems include a conceptual puzzle: Evidence suggests that noncommuting charges may hinder thermalization in some ways while enhancing thermalization in others.

%B Nature Reviews Physics %8 9/7/2023 %G eng %U https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.00054 %R 10.1038/s42254-023-00641-9 %0 Journal Article %J npj Quantum Inf %D 2022 %T How to build Hamiltonians that transport noncommuting charges in quantum thermodynamics %A Nicole Yunger Halpern %A Shayan Majidy %X

Noncommuting conserved quantities have recently launched a subfield of quantum thermodynamics. In conventional thermodynamics, a system of interest and a bath exchange quantities -- energy, particles, electric charge, etc. -- that are globally conserved and are represented by Hermitian operators. These operators were implicitly assumed to commute with each other, until a few years ago. Freeing the operators to fail to commute has enabled many theoretical discoveries -- about reference frames, entropy production, resource-theory models, etc. Little work has bridged these results from abstract theory to experimental reality. This paper provides a methodology for building this bridge systematically: We present an algorithm for constructing Hamiltonians that conserve noncommuting quantities globally while transporting the quantities locally. The Hamiltonians can couple arbitrarily many subsystems together and can be integrable or nonintegrable. Special cases of our construction have appeared in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Our Hamiltonians may be realized physically with superconducting qudits, with ultracold atoms, with trapped ions, and in QCD.

%B npj Quantum Inf %V 8 %8 01/27/2022 %G eng %U https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.14041v1 %N 10 %R https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-022-00516-4