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arXiv:1511.04459 · Physical Review Letters

Diagnosing Topological Edge States via Entanglement Monogamy

Konstantinos Meichanetzidis, Jens Eisert, Mauro Cirio, Ville Lahtinen, Jiannis K. Pachos

Published Mar 30, 2016• 15 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Topological phases of matter possess intricate correlation patterns typically probed by entanglement entropies or entanglement spectra. In this Letter, we propose an alternative approach to assessing topologically induced edge states in free and interacting fermionic systems. We do so by focussing on the fermionic covariance matrix. This matrix is often tractable either analytically or numerically, and it precisely captures the relevant correlations of the system. By invoking the concept of monogamy of entanglement, we show that highly entangled states supported across a system bipartition are largely disentangled from the rest of the system, thus, usually appearing as gapless edge states. We then define an entanglement qualifier that identifies the presence of topological edge states based purely on correlations present in the ground states. We demonstrate the versatility of this qualifier by applying it to various free and interacting fermionic topological systems.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.116.130501

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Topological phases of matter possess intricate correlation patterns typically probed by entanglement entropies or entanglement spectra. In this Letter, we propose an alternative approach to assessing topologically induced edge states in free and interacting fermionic systems. We do so by focussing on the fermionic covariance matrix. This matrix is often tractable either analytically or numerically, and it precisely captures the relevant correlations of the system. By invoking the concept of monogamy of entanglement, we show that highly entangled states supported across a system bipartition are largely disentangled from the rest of the system, thus, usually appearing as gapless edge states. We then define an entanglement qualifier that identifies the presence of topological edge states based purely on correlations present in the ground states. We demonstrate the versatility of this qualifier by applying it to various free and interacting fermionic topological systems.
Quantum matter involves the study of entanglement patterns in the ground states of many-body \nsystems. Of significant interest have recently been topological states of matter, \nwhich exhibit characteristics only described globally. As such they are robust to local deformations. \nIn this thesis, we study inter-correlations of many-body states through the entanglement spectrum, \nobtained by a bipartition of both topological and non-topological systems. \n \nIn particular, we introduce two novel diagnostics which operate on entanglement spectra. \nFor topological phases supporting edge states on open boundaries \nwe take a quantum-information inspired approach by invoking \nthe monogamy relations obeyed by multi-partite systems. \nWithin a strictly single-particle framework, \nwe establish a correspondence between highly entangled mode and the existence of edge states. \nIn the many-body context, we introduce the interaction distance \nof a mixed state. \nExclusively via the entanglement spectrum it \ndetermines how close a free-fermion state lies and what the emergent free quasiparticles are. \n \nWe apply these two measures to diagnose the properties of a variety of free and interacting fermionic topological systems and reinterpret their properties from a fresh point of view. \nOur case studies revolve around Kitaev's honeycomb model, \nwhich supports both short-range and long-range topological order, \nconstituting it thus relevant to both the monogamy qualifier and the interaction distance. \nThe possibility to diagnose whether a model has zero interacting distance or if it supports maximally entangled states provides central and compact information about the behaviour of complex quantum systems.
Using bulk gapless topological superconductors in both 1D and 2D as free fermion model examples, we demonstrate the power of subsystem correlation spectrum (the spectrum of correlation matrix), or equivalently the entanglement spectrum for the case of free fermions, in characterizing the topology of the nontrivial ground state. For the systems considered, we show that signatures of the low-energy spectrum, including both the edge modes and the bulk modes, appear in the correlation spectrum, albeit with different behaviors. This work generalizes the 2D Li-Haldane entanglement spectrum characterization of topological edge states to 2D topological systems with gapless bulk.
The existence of degenerate or gapless edge states is a characteristic feature of topological insulators, but is difficult to detect in the presence of interactions. We propose a new method to obtain the degeneracy of the edge states from the perspective of entanglement entropy, which is very useful to identify interacting topological states. Employing the determinant quantum Monte Carlo technique, we investigate the interaction effect on two representative models of fermionic topological insulators in one and two dimensions, respectively. In the two topologically nontrivial phases, the edge degeneracies are reduced by interactions but remain to be nontrivial.
Identifying topological phases for a strongly correlated theory remains a non-trivial task, as defining order parameters, such as Berry phases, is not straightforward. Quantum information theory is capable of identifying topological phases for a theory that exhibits quantum phase transition with a suitable definition of order parameters that are related to different entanglement measures for the system. In this work, we study entanglement entropy for a coupled SSH model, both in the presence and absence of Hubbard interaction and at varying interaction strengths. For the free theory, edge entanglement acts as an order parameter, which is supported by analytic calculations and numerical (DMRG) studies. We calculate the symmetry-resolved entanglement and demonstrate the equipartition of entanglement for this model which itself acts as an order parameter when calculated for the edge modes. As the DMRG calculation allows one to go beyond the free theory, we study the entanglement structure of the edge modes in the presence of on-site Hubbard interaction for the same model. A sudden reduction of edge entanglement is obtained as interaction is switched on. The explanation for this lies in the change in the size of the degenerate subspaces in the presence and absence of interaction. We also study the signature of entanglement when the interaction strength becomes extremely strong and demonstrate that the edge entanglement remains protected. In this limit, the energy eigenstates essentially become a tensor product state, implying zero entanglement. However, a remnant entropy survives in the non-trivial topological phase, which is exactly due to the entanglement of the edge modes.
Topological phases are characterized by their entanglement properties, which is manifest in a direct relation between entanglement spectra and edge states discovered by Li and Haldane. We propose to leverage the power of synthetic quantum systems for measuring entanglement via the Entanglement Hamiltonian to probe this relationship experimentally. This is made possible by exploiting the quasi-local structure of Entanglement Hamiltonians. The feasibility of this proposal is illustrated for two paradigmatic examples realizable with current technology, an integer quantum Hall state of non-interacting fermions on a 2D lattice and a symmetry protected topological state of interacting fermions on a 1D chain. Our results pave the road towards an experimental identification of topological order in strongly correlated quantum many-body systems.
"Topological ordered" phases such as gapped quantum spin-liquids and fractional quantum Hall states possess ground state degeneracy on a torus. We show that the topological nature of this degeneracy has interesting consequences for the entanglement structure of the degenerate ground states. This leads to a simple method for detecting topological order, which is ready-made for numerical schemes such as density matrix renormalization group. The method is valid for phases that do or do not possess edge states alike. We demonstrate it by calculating the entanglement spectrum and the topological entanglement entropy for a chiral spin-liquid state on a 18 site system.