We introduce deterministic state-transformation protocols between many-body quantum states which can be implemented by low-depth Quantum Circuits (QC) followed by Local Operations and Classical Communication (LOCC). We show that this gives rise to a classification of phases in which topologically-ordered states or other paradigmatic entangled states become trivial. We also investigate how the set of unitary operations is enhanced by LOCC in this scenario, allowing one to perform certain large-depth QC in terms of low-depth ones.
We introduce deterministic state-transformation protocols between many-body quantum states which can be implemented by low-depth Quantum Circuits (QC) followed by Local Operations and Classical Communication (LOCC). We show that this gives rise to a classification of phases in which topologically-ordered states or other paradigmatic entangled states become trivial. We also investigate how the set of unitary operations is enhanced by LOCC in this scenario, allowing one to perform certain large-depth QC in terms of low-depth ones.
We introduce deterministic state-transformation protocols between many-body quantum states that can be implemented by low-depth quantum circuits followed by local operations and classical communication. We show that this gives rise to a classification of phases in which topologically ordered states or other paradigmatic entangled states become trivial. We also investigate how the set of unitary operations is enhanced by local operations and classical communication in this scenario, allowing one to perform certain large-depth quantum circuits in terms of low-depth ones.
Entanglement is a central phenomenon in modern physics, ubiquitous in quantum systems. From a quantum information theory perspective, entanglement is a resource when spatially separated labs are only able to act locally. The set of quantum operations in this setting is known as local operations and classical communication (LOCC). Studying LOCC transformations allows one to quantify entanglement. With this approach, bipartite entanglement has been well understood. However, multipartite entanglement presents a greater challenge. In particular, for large enough systems, states are generically incomparable via LOCC. Motivated by these results, we study multipartite entanglement via two approaches: firstly, by considering physically motivated modifications to LOCC; secondly, by focusing on physically relevant states. This thesis is divided into two parts. The first part takes the first of the two approaches and studies physically motivated modifications of LOCC. In particular, we study multi-state LOCC and approximate LOCC. In multi-state LOCC, we consider transformations of multiple states. This setting is physically motivated; multi-state transformations are natural if one can store states and act on them simultaneously. We show this setting is considerably more powerful than single-state LOCC, with even local unitaries (LUs) able to change the stochastic LOCC (SLOCC) class of the individual states. We also demonstrate novel multipartite features, including multipartite catalysis, and characterise LU transformations of multiple bipartite states. In approximate LOCC, we study transformations which nearly reach the desired state, rather than exactly reaching it. This setting is also physically motivated as, in any real lab, one never transforms states exactly to a desired state, but instead transforms states to an ensemble of states that are near the desired state. Here, we show certain features of LOCC simplify in approximate transformations. We then define a hierarchy of physically relevant approximate transformations and show that, unlike in the bipartite setting, this hierarchy does not collapse for multipartite approximate transformations. The second part of this thesis takes the second approach and considers a physically relevant class of states: matrix product states (MPS). Two MPS are said to belong to the same phase with respect to a symmetry if they can be converted into one another via short-depth, symmetric circuits. With this definition, new exotic phases of matter emerge, including symmetry-protected topological (SPT) order. We study how symmetric measurements and feedforward alter the phase classification of MPS. We demonstrate that for all on-site finite abelian symmetries, the phase classification trivialises. Moreover, for certain non-abelian symmetry groups, we provide protocols that implement asymptotically deterministic transformations between any two phases. We also study the connection between SPT phases and SLOCC classes of MPS. In particular, we characterise the normal MPS SLOCC classes, with bond and physical dimension equal to two, that are capable of corresponding to SPT phases.
Long-range entanglement is an important quantum resource, particularly for topological orders and quantum error correction. In reality, preparing long-range entangled states requires a deep unitary circuit, which poses significant experimental challenges. A promising avenue is offered by replacing some quantum resources with local operations and classical communication (LOCC). With these classical components, one can communicate outcomes of midcircuit measurements in distant subsystems, substantially reducing circuit depth in many important cases. However, to prepare general long-range entangled states, finding LOCC-assisted circuits of a short depth remains an open question. Here, to address this challenge, we propose a quantum-classical hybrid algorithm to find optimal LOCC protocols for preparing ground states of given Hamiltonians. In our algorithm, we introduce an efficient way to estimate parameter gradients and use such gradients for variational optimization. Theoretically, we establish the conditions for the absence of barren plateaus, ensuring trainability at a large system size. Numerically, the algorithm accurately solves the ground state of long-range entangled models, such as the perturbed Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state and surface code. Our results demonstrate the advantage of our method over conventional unitary variational circuits: the practical advantage in the accuracy of estimated ground-state energy and the theoretical advantage in creating long-range entanglement.
Local operations assisted by classical communication (LOCC) play a fundamental role in the resource-theoretic formulation of entanglement theory inducing an operationally meaningful ordering in the set of entangled states. The particular class within LOCC of local unitary (LU) transformations is obviously closed under inversion. Thus, LU-equivalent states are interconvertible by LOCC and have therefore the same entanglement. For this reason LU-equivalence has been thoroughly studied in the context of entanglement theory. However, as I note here with a simple example, the converse is not true: there exist entangled states that are interconvertible by LOCC but which are not LU-equivalent. This motivates studying under which conditions LOCC interconvertibility is characterized by LU-equivalence. I provide a sufficient condition for this to hold. When one considers multipartite states with full entanglement dimensionality (as quantified by the Schmidt number vector) LOCC interconvertibility can only hold under LU-equivalence.
Understanding multipartite entanglement is vital, as it underpins a wide range of phenomena across physics. The study of transformations of states via Local Operations assisted by Classical Communication (LOCC) allows one to quantitatively analyse entanglement, as it induces a partial order in the Hilbert space. However, it has been shown that, for systems with fixed local dimensions, this order is generically trivial, which prevents relating multipartite states to each other with respect to any entanglement measure. In order to obtain a non-trivial partial ordering, we study a physically motivated extension of LOCC: multi-state LOCC. Here, one considers simultaneous LOCC transformations acting on a finite number of entangled pure states. We study both multipartite and bipartite multi-state transformations. In the multipartite case, we demonstrate that one can change the stochastic LOCC (SLOCC) class of the individual initial states by only applying Local Unitaries (LUs). We show that, by transferring entanglement from one state to the other, one can perform state conversions not possible in the single copy case; provide examples of multipartite entanglement catalysis; and demonstrate improved probabilistic protocols. In the bipartite case, we identify numerous non-trivial LU transformations and show that the source entanglement is not additive. These results demonstrate that multi-state LOCC has a much richer landscape than single-state LOCC.
We consider generic pure n-qubit states and a general class of pure states of arbitrary dimensions and arbitrarily many subsystems. We characterize those states which can be reached from some other state via local operations assisted by finitely many rounds of classical communication (LOCC_{N}). For n qubits with n>3, we show that this set of states is of measure zero, which implies that the maximally entangled set is generically of full measure if restricted to the practical scenario of LOCC_{N}. Moreover, we identify a class of states for which any LOCC_{N} protocol can be realized via a concatenation of deterministic steps. We show, however, that in general there exist state transformations which require a probabilistic step within the protocol, which highlights the difference between bipartite and multipartite LOCC.