We introduce a method of quantum emulation of a classical reversible cellular automaton. By applying this method to a chaotic cellular automaton, the obtained quantum many-body system thermalizes while all the energy eigenstates and eigenvalues are solvable. These explicit solutions allow us to verify the validity of some scenarios of thermalization to this system. We find that two leading scenarios, the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis scenario and the large effective dimension scenario, do not explain thermalization in this model.
We introduce a method of quantum emulation of a classical reversible cellular automaton. By applying this method to a chaotic cellular automaton, the obtained quantum many-body system thermalizes while all the energy eigenstates and eigenvalues are solvable. These explicit solutions allow us to verify the validity of some scenarios of thermalization to this system. We find that two leading scenarios, the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis scenario and the large effective dimension scenario, do not explain thermalization in this model.
We define quantum cellular automata as infinite quantum lattice systems with discrete time dynamics, such that the time step commutes with lattice translations and has strictly finite propagation speed. In contrast to earlier definitions this allows us to give an explicit characterization of all local rules generating such automata. The same local rules also generate the global time step for automata with periodic boundary conditions. Our main structure theorem asserts that any quantum cellular automaton is structurally reversible, i.e., that it can be obtained by applying two blockwise unitary operations in a generalized Margolus partitioning scheme. This implies that, in contrast to the classical case, the inverse of a nearest neighbor quantum cellular automaton is again a nearest neighbor automaton. We present several construction methods for quantum cellular automata, based on unitaries commuting with their translates, on the quantization of (arbitrary) reversible classical cellular automata, on quantum circuits, and on Clifford transformations with respect to a description of the single cells by finite Weyl systems. Moreover, we indicate how quantum random walks can be considered as special cases of cellular automata, namely by restricting a quantum lattice gas automaton with local particle number conservation to the single particle sector.
Classical reversible cellular automata (CAs), which describe the discrete-time dynamics of classical degrees of freedom in a finite state space, can exhibit exact, nonthermal quantum eigenstates despite being classically chaotic. We show that every classical CA defines a family of generically nonintegrable, periodically driven (Floquet) quantum dynamics with exact, nonthermal eigenstates. These Floquet dynamics are nonergodic in the sense that certain product states on a periodic classical orbit fail to thermalize, while generic initial states thermalize as expected in a quantum chaotic system. We demonstrate that some signatures of these effects can be probed in quantum simulators based on Rydberg atoms in the blockade regime. These results establish classical CAs as parent models for a class of quantum chaotic systems with rare nonthermal eigenstates.
Take a cellular automaton, consider that each configuration is a basis vector in some vector space, and linearize the global evolution function. If lucky, the r esult could actually make sense physically, as a valid quantum evolution; but do es it make sense as a quantum cellular automaton? That is the main question we a ddress in this paper. In every model with discrete time and space, two things ar e required in order to qualify as a cellular automaton: invariance by translatio n and locality. We prove that this locality condition is so restrictive in the q uantum case that every quantum cellular automaton constructed in this way - i. e., by linearization of a classical one - must be reversible. We also discuss some subtleties about the extent of nonlocality that can be encountered in the o ne-dimensional case; we show that, even when the quantized version is non local, still, under some conditions, we may be unable to use this nonlocality to trans mit information nonlocally.
We study the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of the quantum cellular automaton known as "Rule 54." For a class of low-entangled initial states, we provide an analytic description of the effect of the global evolution on finite subsystems in terms of simple quantum channels, which gives access to the full thermalization dynamics at the microscopic level. As an example, we provide analytic formulas for the evolution of local observables and Rényi entropies. We show that, in contrast to other known examples of exactly solvable quantum circuits, Rule 54 does not behave as a simple Markovian bath on its own parts, and displays typical nonequilibrium features of interacting integrable many-body quantum systems such as finite relaxation rate and interaction-induced dressing effects. Our study provides a rare example where the full thermalization dynamics can be solved exactly at the microscopic level.
Quantum cellular automata are important tools in understanding quantum dynamics, thanks to their simple and effective list of rules. Here we consider a class of noisy, one-dimensional quantum cellular automata that allow one to shift from unitary dynamics to completely positive maps, investigating the evolution of coherence as well as the notion of reversibility in such a setting. To this aim, we associate an approximate reverse automaton to each noisy automaton, and assess its effect, and we define an irreversibility time based on the distance from the maximally mixed state, which is shown to be the only attractor of the automaton map in the presence of dephasing. Our analysis illustrates the interplay between unitary and noisy dynamics.
The emergence of statistical mechanics from quantum dynamics is conventionally understood through quantum chaos, the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH), and canonical typicality, which together explain the thermal behavior of local observables in quantum many-body systems. We provide a distinct mechanism in which, for a quantum many-body system under strong random perturbation, the chaotic behavior of the system's eigenvectors and a constraint on the total energy directly generate a canonical ensemble for the entire system. The canonical ensemble occurs as the first moment of the Porter-Thomas distribution of the system's chaotic eigenstates, and the constraint on the total energy sets the temperature in the ensemble. This yields canonically distributed expectation values without invoking ETH, a microcanonical ensemble, or a subsystem-bath partition for local and global observables. We numerically demonstrate the mechanism for the 1D transverse-field Ising model by showing canonically distributed eigenstate projectors and spin-spin correlators with distinctive temperature dependence of the correlation length. An implementation of this thermalization approach on a quantum computer can be utilized for thermal state preparation.