Entanglement phase transitions in quantum chaotic systems subject to projective measurements and in random tensor networks have emerged as a new class of critical points separating phases with different entanglement scaling. We propose a mean-field theory of such transitions by studying the entanglement properties of random tree tensor networks. As a function of bond dimension, we find a phase transition separating area-law from logarithmic scaling of the entanglement entropy. Using a mapping onto a replica statistical mechanics model defined on a Cayley tree and the cavity method, we analyze the scaling properties of such transitions. Our approach provides a tractable, mean-field-like example of an entanglement transition. We verify our predictions numerically by computing directly the entanglement of random tree tensor network states.
Entanglement is a key quantum phenomena and understanding transitions between phases of matter with different entanglement properties are an interesting probe of quantum mechanics. We numerically study a model of a 2D tensor network proposed to have an entanglement entropy transition first considered by Vasseur et al.[Phys. Rev. B 100, 134203 (2019)]. We find that by varying the bond dimension of the tensors in the network we can observe a transition between an area and volume phase with a logarithmic critical point around
D≈2. We further characterize the critical behavior measuring a critical exponent using entanglement entropy and the tripartite quantum mutual information, observe a crossover from a `nearly pure' to entangled area law phase using the the distributions of the entanglement entropy and find a cubic decay of the pairwise mutual information at the transition. We further consider the dependence of these observables for different Rényi entropy. This work helps further validate and characterize random tensor networks as a paradigmatic examples of an entanglement transition.
We study the critical properties of random quantum circuits with a
U(1) symmetry subject to local projective measurements that explicitly break this symmetry. We find that, at the measurement-induced phase transition, symmetry-breaking measurements act as a relevant perturbation at large scales, leading to the same universal critical properties as the corresponding monitored random circuit with non-symmetric unitary dynamics. In particular, we consider monitored
U(1)-symmetric Haar-random circuits in the limit of large local Hilbert-space dimension, where the trajectory-averaged entanglement entropy can be exactly obtained in terms of a classical statistical mechanics model. In this model, the charge associated with the conservation law follows a symmetric simple exclusion process, in which symmetry-breaking measurements correspond to disordered defects that create and destroy charges. We prove that the charge correlation length remains finite for any measurement rate, ruling out a charge-sharpening transition, in contrast to the case of symmetry-preserving measurements. We further support our predictions at finite local Hilbert-space dimension through numerical finite-size scaling analyses of the entanglement transition in monitored
U(1)-symmetric Haar and stabilizer random circuits.
We define an ensemble of random Clifford quantum circuits whose output state undergoes an entanglement phase transition between two volume-law phases as a function of measurement rate. Our setup maps exactly the output state to the ground space of a spin glass model. We identify the entanglement phases using an order parameter that is accessible on a quantum chip. We locate the transition point and evaluate a critical exponent, revealing spin glass criticality. Our Letter establishes an exact statistical mechanics theory of an entanglement phase transition.
Quantum circuits under sufficiently weak monitoring purify on a timescale
TP exponentially long in the system size. This slowness underlies a universal purification dynamics, whose quantitative description has so far required the replica trick, with a delicate analytic continuation. We show that monitored Clifford circuits on
L qudits of prime dimension
q bypass this construction entirely: in the scaling limit at fixed
x=t/TP(L), purification reduces to the Markovian decay of the density-matrix rank, an exactly solvable death process descending from infinity. We compute the full scaling functions in compact form: all Rényi entropies collapse onto a universal curve
⟨S(x)⟩. Exact stabilizer simulations at
q=2,3,5 confirm the predictions, with no fitting parameter for the global model and
TP as the only fitted scale for local brick-wall circuits. Also, the replica problem amounts to a tilted version of the same Markov process, in agreement with exact computations from the Clifford commutant. Finally, the quantization of the rank leaves two hallmarks that distinguish Clifford dynamics from generic monitored circuits: the entropy fluctuations saturate at short scaled times
x→0 to an
O(1) variance, instead of vanishing, and observables develop a temporal modulation periodic in
logqx, which cannot be captured by the replica approach.
Random quantum circuits provide a framework for probing universal dynamical phenomena in chaotic quantum many-body systems, by circumventing the microscopic details of Hamiltonian evolution. Bipartite entanglement measures can be used to characterize the dynamical phases that emerge in these systems. Typically, under random unitary evolution, bipartite entanglement entropies exhibit a linear growth, and attain steady-state values that scale extensively with the system volume. However, when local projective measurements are introduced, a suppression of steady-state bipartite entropies occurs, leading to a sub-extensive scaling with the system volume. This class of entanglement scaling transitions, from an extensive to a sub-extensive scaling regime, has sparked interest in a broader class of measurement-induced phase transitions, with a potential to further our understanding of fault-tolerance in quantum computing, and in realizing synthetic quantum phases on digital quantum simulators. In this work, we characterize entanglement scaling transitions in one-dimensional random quantum circuits composed of q-level systems, with the local Hilbert space dimension q ≥ 2. This predominantly numerical study employs generalizations of the stabilizer formalism and the Clifford group to higher-dimensional Hilbert spaces to simulate the measurement-induced transitions. We find that the nature of the entanglement scaling transition remains invariant under changes in the local Hilbert space dimension. However, the critical measurement rate inducing the transition increases with q, asymptotically approaching 1/2 in the limit q → ∞. To further explore this classical limit, we develop a minimal dynamical model that captures entanglement structures under unitary evolution. We analyze the entanglement structures in thermal stabilizer states using this model, and propose an approach for incorporating measurements within this framework.