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arXiv:2007.03339 · Journal of Mathematical Physics

Mixing and localization in random time-periodic quantum circuits of Clifford unitaries

Tom Farshi, Daniele Toniolo, Carlos E. González-Guillén, Alvaro Martin Alhambra, Lluís Masanes

Published Mar 1, 2022• 10 citations
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Abstract

How much do local and time-periodic dynamics resemble a random unitary? In the present work, we address this question by using the Clifford formalism from quantum computation. We analyze a Floquet model with disorder, characterized by a family of local, time-periodic, and random quantum circuits in one spatial dimension. We observe that the evolution operator enjoys an extra symmetry at times that are a half-integer multiple of the period. With this, we prove that after the scrambling time, namely, when any initial perturbation has propagated throughout the system, the evolution operator cannot be distinguished from a (Haar) random unitary when all qubits are measured with Pauli operators. This indistinguishability decreases as time goes on, which is in high contrast to the more studied case of (time-dependent) random circuits. We also prove that the evolution of Pauli operators displays a form of mixing. These results require the dimension of the local subsystem to be large. In the opposite regime, our system displays a novel form of localization, produced by the appearance of effective one-sided walls, which prevent perturbations from crossing the wall in one direction but not the other.

DOI
10.1063/5.0054863

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How much do local and time-periodic dynamics resemble a random unitary? In the present work, we address this question by using the Clifford formalism from quantum computation. We analyze a Floquet model with disorder, characterized by a family of local, time-periodic, and random quantum circuits in one spatial dimension. We observe that the evolution operator enjoys an extra symmetry at times that are a half-integer multiple of the period. With this, we prove that after the scrambling time, namely, when any initial perturbation has propagated throughout the system, the evolution operator cannot be distinguished from a (Haar) random unitary when all qubits are measured with Pauli operators. This indistinguishability decreases as time goes on, which is in high contrast to the more studied case of (time-dependent) random circuits. We also prove that the evolution of Pauli operators displays a form of mixing. These results require the dimension of the local subsystem to be large. In the opposite regime, our system displays a novel form of localization, produced by the appearance of effective one-sided walls, which prevent perturbations from crossing the wall in one direction but not the other.
How much does local and time-periodic dynamics resemble a random unitary? In the present work we address this question by using the Clifford formalism from quantum computation. We analyse a Floquet model with disorder, characterised by a family of local, time-periodic, random quantum circuits in one spatial dimension. We observe that the evolution operator enjoys an extra symmetry at times that are a half-integer multiple of the period. With this we prove that after the scrambling time, namely when any initial perturbation has propagated throughout the system, the evolution operator cannot be distinguished from a (Haar) random unitary when all qubits are measured with Pauli operators. This indistinguishability decreases as time goes on, which is in high contrast to the more studied case of (time-dependent) random circuits. We also prove that the evolution of Pauli operators displays a form of mixing. These results require the dimension of the local subsystem to be large. In the opposite regime our system displays a novel form of localisation, produced by the appearance of effective one-sided walls, which prevent perturbations from crossing the wall in one direction but not the other
How much does local and time-periodic dynamics resemble a random unitary? In the present work we address this question by using the Clifford formalism from quantum computation. We analyse a Floquet model with disorder, characterised by a family of local, time-periodic, random quantum circuits in one spatial dimension. We observe that the evolution operator enjoys an extra symmetry at times that are a half-integer multiple of the period. With this we prove that after the scrambling time, namely when any initial perturbation has propagated throughout the system, the evolution operator cannot be distinguished from a (Haar) random unitary when all qubits are measured with Pauli operators. This indistinguishability decreases as time goes on, which is in high contrast to the more studied case of (time-dependent) random circuits. We also prove that the evolution of Pauli operators displays a form of ergodicity. These results require the dimension of the local subsystem to be large. In the opposite regime our system displays a novel form of localisation, which can be characterised in terms of one-sided walls.
We analyze a Floquet circuit with random Clifford gates in one and two spatial dimensions.By using random graphs and methods from percolation theory, we prove in the two-dimensional (2D) setting that some local operators grow at a ballistic rate, which implies the absence of localization.In contrast, the one-dimensional model displays a strong form of localization, characterized by the emergence of left-and right-blocking walls in random locations.We provide additional insights by complementing our analytical results with numerical simulations of operator spreading and entanglement growth, which show the absence (presence) of localization in two dimensions (one dimension).Furthermore, we unveil how the spectral form factor of the Floquet unitary in 2D circuits behaves like that of quasifree fermions with chaotic single-particle dynamics, with an exponential ramp that persists up to times scaling linearly with the size of the system.Our work sheds light on the nature of disordered Floquet Clifford dynamics and their relationship to fully chaotic quantum dynamics.
An entanglement transition can occur without a corresponding transition in purification. We demonstrate this separation in spatially local monitored Clifford circuits with a fixed number of layers per Floquet period, where a spatially random pattern of Clifford gates and Pauli measurements is repeated exactly in time. Rare spatial structures persist under this repetition and break the correspondence between entanglement and purification found in conventional spacetime-random circuits. In one spatial dimension, the late-time entanglement produced with an initial product state remains area-law, while the system remains extensively mixed in the thermodynamic and long-time limits if the initial state is maximally mixed. In two or more dimensions, we find a transition between volume-law and area-law entanglement while the system remains mixed on both sides of this transition. An extensive amount of quantum information survives indefinitely in both phases and evolves unitarily despite the repeated measurements. We introduce the logical-support radius to characterize its spatial spreading and identify the volume-law and area-law phases with delocalized and localized logical dynamics, respectively. We further introduce the logical Krylov dimension, which counts the independent logical operators dynamically generated from an initially local operator. Its scaling resolves the transition and provides evidence for a new universality class of measurement-induced phase transitions.
The nature of randomness and complexity growth in systems governed by unitary dynamics is a fundamental question in quantum many-body physics. This problem has motivated the study of models such as local random circuits and their convergence to Haar-random unitaries in the long-time limit. However, these models do not correspond to any family of physical time-independent Hamiltonians. In this work, we address this gap by studying the indistinguishability of time-independent Hamiltonian dynamics from truly random unitaries. On one hand, we establish a no-go result showing that for any ensemble of constant-local Hamiltonians and any evolution times, the resulting time-evolution unitary can be efficiently distinguished from Haar-random and fails to form a 222-design or a pseudorandom unitary (PRU). On the other hand, we prove that this limitation can be overcome by increasing the locality slightly: there exist ensembles of random polylog-local Hamiltonians in one-dimension such that under constant evolution time, the resulting time-evolution unitary is indistinguishable from Haar-random, i.e. it forms both a unitary kkk-design and a PRU. Moreover, these Hamiltonians can be efficiently simulated under standard cryptographic assumptions.
Current quantum hardware is limited by noise and decoherence, which restrict the depth of unitary circuits that can be implemented with high fidelity. We investigate how the compressibility of time-evolution operators depends on the dynamical regime of the underlying many-body system. As a testbed, we study a one-dimensional Floquet random circuit with a tunable competition between interactions and on-site disorder. Using tensor-network simulations, we characterize operator growth through the operator-entanglement entropy of the Floquet unitary as well as of out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs). We find rapid operator scrambling at weak disorder, while strong disorder leads to slow OTOC-front propagation and logarithmic or near-logarithmic operator-entanglement growth over the accessible time window. We then optimize shallow brickwall circuits to approximate the Floquet evolution and show that strong-disorder circuits can be compressed to substantially smaller depths than weak-disorder circuits at fixed logarithmic fidelity density. These results suggest that localized or slowly scrambling dynamics provide a favorable regime for compressed quantum simulation on noisy devices.