Long-range entangled states are vital for quantum information processing and quantum metrology. Preparing such states by combining measurements with unitary gates opened new possibilities for efficient protocols with finite-depth quantum circuits. The complexity of these algorithms is crucial for the resource requirements on a large-scale noisy quantum device, while their stability to perturbations decides the fate of their implementation. In this work, we consider stochastic quantum circuits in one and two dimensions comprising randomly applied unitary gates and local measurements. These operations preserve a class of discrete local symmetries, which are broken due to the stochasticity arising from timing and gate imperfections. In the absence of randomness, the protocol generates a symmetry-protected long-range entangled state in a finite-depth circuit. In the general case, by studying the time evolution under this hybrid circuit, we analyze the time to reach the target entangled state. We find two important time scales that we associate with the emergence of certain symmetry generators. The quantum trajectories embody the local symmetry with a time scaling logarithmically with system size, while global symmetries require exponentially long times. We devise error-mitigation protocols that significantly lower both time scales and investigate the stability of the algorithm to perturbations that naturally arise in experiments. We also generalize the protocol to realize toric code and Xu-Moore states in two dimensions, opening avenues for future studies of anyonic excitations. Our results unveil a fundamental relationship between symmetries and dynamics across a range of lattice geometries, which contributes to a broad understanding of the stability of preparation algorithms in terms of phase transitions. Our work paves the way for efficient error correction for quantum state preparation.
Long-range entangled states are vital for quantum information processing and quantum metrology. Preparing such states by combining measurements with unitary gates opened new possibilities for efficient protocols with finite-depth quantum circuits. The complexity of these algorithms is crucial for the resource requirements on a large-scale noisy quantum device, while their stability to perturbations decides the fate of their implementation. In this work, we consider stochastic quantum circuits in one and two dimensions comprising randomly applied unitary gates and local measurements. These operations preserve a class of discrete local symmetries, which are broken due to the stochasticity arising from timing and gate imperfections. In the absence of randomness, the protocol generates a symmetry-protected long-range entangled state in a finite-depth circuit. In the general case, by studying the time evolution under this hybrid circuit, we analyze the time to reach the target entangled state. We find two important time scales that we associate with the emergence of certain symmetry generators. The quantum trajectories embody the local symmetry with a time scaling logarithmically with system size, while global symmetries require exponentially long times. We devise error-mitigation protocols that significantly lower both time scales and investigate the stability of the algorithm to perturbations that naturally arise in experiments. We also generalize the protocol to realize toric code and Xu-Moore states in two dimensions, opening avenues for future studies of anyonic excitations. Our results unveil a fundamental relationship between symmetries and dynamics across a range of lattice geometries, which contributes to a broad understanding of the stability of preparation algorithms in terms of phase transitions. Our work paves the way for efficient error correction for quantum state preparation.
Whether a given target state can be prepared by starting with a simple product state and acting with a finite-depth quantum circuit is a key question in condensed matter physics and quantum information science. It underpins classifications of topological phases, as well as the understanding of topological quantum codes, and has obvious relevance for device implementations. Traditionally, this question assumes that the quantum circuit is made up of unitary gates that are . Inspired by the advent of noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices, we reconsider this question with k - gates, i.e., gates that act on no more than k degrees of freedom but are not restricted to be geometrically local. First, we construct explicit finite-depth circuits of symmetric k -local gates that create symmetry-protected topological (SPT) states from an initial product state. Our construction applies to SPT states protected by global symmetries or subsystem symmetries but not to those with higher-form symmetries, which we conjecture remain nontrivial. Next, we show how to implement arbitrary translationally invariant quantum cellular automata in any dimension using finite-depth circuits of k -local gates. These results imply that the topological classifications of SPT phases and quantum cellular automata both collapse to a single trivial phase in the presence of k -local interactions. We furthermore argue that SPT phases are fragile to k -local symmetric perturbations. We conclude by discussing the implications for other phases, such as fracton phases, and surveying future directions. Our analysis opens a new experimentally motivated conceptual direction examining the stability of phases and the feasibility of state preparation without the assumption of geometric locality. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Sequential circuits provide an optimal linear-depth route to unitarily preparing long-range ordered quantum states, but circuit-level noise can be far more damaging than noise applied after preparation: local errors may be propagated by subsequent gates into nonlocal defects that destroy the target order. In this work, we present classes of unitary sequential circuits that prepare certain non-trivial orders in the presence of Pauli noise. Our constructions exploit the spatial structure of the syndromes of the target state, which in certain cases allows us to systematically suppress the propagation of errors using strictly local gates. The strategy can be applied both to symmetry-breaking order, for which we present a 3D example, and to topological order, which we showcase on a 4D version of the toric code. We also highlight how this stability against errors necessitates non-Clifford gates, and how measurement-feedback loops can be used to stabilize lower-dimensional states as well.
In the field of monitored quantum circuits, it has remained an open question whether finite-time protocols for preparing long-range entangled states lead to phases of matter that are stable to gate imperfections, that can convert projective into weak measurements. Here, we show that in certain cases, long-range entanglement persists in the presence of weak measurements, and gives rise to novel forms of quantum criticality. We demonstrate this explicitly for preparing the two-dimensional Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger cat state and the three-dimensional toric code as minimal instances. In contrast to random monitored circuits, our circuit of gates and measurements is deterministic; the only randomness is in the measurement outcomes. We show how the randomness in these weak measurements allows us to track the solvable Nishimori line of the random-bond Ising model, rigorously establishing the stability of the glassy long-range entangled states in two and three spatial dimensions. Away from this exactly solvable construction, we use hybrid tensor network and Monte Carlo simulations to obtain a nonzero Edwards-Anderson order parameter as an indicator of long-range entanglement in the two-dimensional scenario. We argue that our protocol admits a natural implementation in existing quantum computing architectures, requiring only a depth-3 circuit on IBM's heavy-hexagon transmon chips.
Measurement-only circuits provide a minimal setting in which repeated local projections can either generate or suppress many-body entanglement, giving rise to measurement-induced phase transitions and dynamical regimes, that might have no unitary counterpart. Here we investigate entanglement and information transitions in one-dimensional measurement-only Clifford circuits with long-range two-qubit parity checks. By tuning both the measurement range and density per layer, we uncover a broad set of phases whose classification requires probes beyond entanglement entropy, such as mutual information, tripartite mutual information, purification from an ancilla, and Bell-cluster statistics. We map phase diagrams using large-scale Clifford simulations for two protocols: a random-basis design in which each measurement is randomly chosen from {XX,YY,ZZ}, and a single-basis design in which the basis is fixed within each layer but varies between layers, hence introducing more structure to the circuit.
We map the trajectory-averaged entanglement entropy to a two-dimensional statistical mechanics model by extending a replica-based method to random-basis measurement-only circuits, and show that a continuous-time limit yields an effective long-range XX hamiltonian in the steady state. This connection links the observed volume-law to sub-volume-law entanglement transition to the boundary between a continuous symmetry broken phase and a critical XY phase. Strikingly, in structured (single-basis) circuits we find a phase in which volume-law and long-range entanglement coexists with rapid, size-independent purification of an ancilla qubit, and the absence of scrambling, highlighting measurement-only circuits as a promising route to efficiently preparing highly entangled and technologically useful quantum states.
We explore a class of quantum circuit models with local decoherence (noise) and local projective measurements, each respecting a global Z_2 symmetry. The model supports a spin glass phase where the Z_2 symmetry is spontaneously broken (not possible in an equilibrium 1d system), a paramagnetic phase characterized by a divergent susceptibility, and an intermediate trivial phase. All three phases are also stable to Z_2-symmetric local unitary gates, and the dynamical phase transitions between the phases are in the percolation universality class. The open circuit dynamics can be purified by explicitly introducing a bath with its own scrambling dynamics, as in [Bao, Choi, Altman, arXiv:2102.09164], which does not change any of the universal physics. Within the spin glass phase the circuit dynamics can be interpreted as a quantum repetition code, with each stabilizer of the code measured stochastically at a finite rate, and the decoherences as effective bit-flip errors. Motivated by the geometry of the spin glass phase, we devise a novel decoding algorithm for recovering an arbitrary initial qubit state in the code space, assuming knowledge of the history of the measurement outcomes, and the ability of performing local Pauli measurements and gates on the final state. For a circuit with L^d qubits running for time T, the time needed to execute the decoder scales as O(L^d T) (with dimensionality d). With this decoder in hand, we find that the information of the initial encoded qubit state can be retained (and then recovered) for a time logarithmic in L for a 1d circuit, and for a time at least linear in L in 2d below a finite error threshold. For both the repetition and toric codes, we compare and contrast our decoding algorithm with earlier algorithms that map the error model to the random bond Ising model.
Demonstrating how long-range entangled states are born from product states has gained much attention, which is not only important for quantum technology but also provides an unconventional tool in characterizing and classifying exotic phases of matter. In this paper, we introduce a unified and efficient framework of quantum circuits (i.e., a series of local unitary transformations), termed the seed-entangler-enriched sequential quantum circuit (SEESQC) to construct long-range entangled states (i.e., code states) in the code space of topological error-correcting codes. Specifically, we apply SEESQC to construct code states of tetradigit models---a broad class of long-range entangled stabilizer codes indexed by a four-digit parameter. These models are not rare but encompass toric codes across arbitrary dimensions and subsume the X-cube fracton code as special cases. Featuring a hierarchical structure of generalized entanglement renormalization group, many tetradigit models host spatially extended excitations (e.g., loops, membranes, and exotic nonmanifold objects) with constrained mobility and deformability, and exhibit system-size-dependent ground-state degeneracies that scale exponentially with a polynomial in linear sizes. In this work, we begin with graphical and algebraic demonstration of quantum circuits for the computational basis states, before generalizing to broader cases. Central to this framework is a key ingredient termed the seed-entangler acting on a small number of qubits termed seeds, enabling a systematic scheme to achieve arbitrary code states. Remarkably, the number of available seeds equals the number of logical qubits for the constructed examples, which leaves plenty of room for future investigation in theoretical physics, mathematics and quantum information science. Beyond the critical limitation of prior state-engineering methodologies, which required entirely distinct, model-specific circuit designs for each class of topological order, this framework transcends spatial dimensions, bridges liquid and nonliquid states, and unifies gapped phases governed by distinct entanglement renormalization group schemes. With experimental feasibility via synthetic dimensions in modern quantum simulators, the SEESQC framework offers a pathway toward engineering topological phases, and manipulating logical qubits.