Quantum dynamics with local interactions in lattice models display rich physics, but is notoriously hard to study. Dual-unitary circuits allow for exact answers to interesting physical questions in clean or disordered one- and higher-dimensional quantum systems. However, this family of models shows some non-universal features, like vanishing correlations inside the light-cone and instantaneous thermalization of local observables. In this work we propose a generalization of dual-unitary circuits where the exactly calculable spatial-temporal correlation functions display richer behavior, and have non-trivial thermalization of local observables. This is achieved by generalizing the single-gate condition to a hierarchy of multi-gate conditions, where the first level recovers dual-unitary models, and the second level exhibits these new interesting features. We also extend the discussion and provide exact solutions to correlators with few-site observables and discuss higher-orders, including the ones after a quantum quench. In addition, we provide exhaustive parametrizations for qubit cases, and propose a new family of models for local dimensions larger than two, which also provides a new family of dual-unitary models.
Quantum dynamics with local interactions in lattice models display rich physics, but is notoriously hard to study. Dual-unitary circuits allow for exact answers to interesting physical questions in clean or disordered one- and higher-dimensional quantum systems. However, this family of models shows some non-universal features, like vanishing correlations inside the light-cone and instantaneous thermalization of local observables. In this work we propose a generalization of dual-unitary circuits where the exactly calculable spatial-temporal correlation functions display richer behavior, and have non-trivial thermalization of local observables. This is achieved by generalizing the single-gate condition to a hierarchy of multi-gate conditions, where the first level recovers dual-unitary models, and the second level exhibits these new interesting features. We also extend the discussion and provide exact solutions to correlators with few-site observables and discuss higher-orders, including the ones after a quantum quench. In addition, we provide exhaustive parametrizations for qubit cases, and propose a new family of models for local dimensions larger than two, which also provides a new family of dual-unitary models.
Dual-unitary circuits have emerged as a paradigm of exactly solvable yet non-integrable quantum dynamics. Recently, a generalization of dual unitarity attempting to extend the phenomenology of exactly solvable circuits has been introduced through a hierarchy of conditions, with dual unitarity as the first level. However, beyond the second level the proposed generalized dual-unitary hierarchy ceases to be solvable in the whole spacetime. We present an infinite hierarchy of solvability conditions remedying this problem. These new conditions can be combined with the generalized dual-unitary hierarchy to obtain circuits for which correlation functions and entanglement dynamics can be analyzed exactly in the whole spacetime. We show that this novel hierarchy possesses non-trivial solutions at every level. Our results demonstrate that dual unitarity can be systematically extended while preserving solvability, opening up investigations of exactly solvable non-integrable systems with more general properties.
Exact solutions in interacting many-body systems are scarce but extremely valuable since they provide insights into the dynamics. Dual-unitary models are examples in one spatial dimension where this is possible. These brick-wall quantum circuits consist of local gates, which remain unitary not only in time, but also when interpreted as evolutions along the spatial directions. However, this setting of unitary dynamics does not directly apply to real-world systems due to their imperfect isolation, and it is thus imperative to consider the impact of noise to dual-unitary dynamics and its exact solvability. In this work we generalise the ideas of dual-unitarity to obtain exact solutions in noisy quantum circuits, where each unitary gate is substituted by a local quantum channel. Exact solutions are obtained by demanding that the noisy gates yield a valid quantum channel not only in time, but also when interpreted as evolutions along one or both of the spatial directions and possibly backwards in time. This gives rise to new families of models that satisfy different combinations of unitality constraints along the space and time directions. We provide exact solutions for the spatio-temporal correlation functions, spatial correlations after a quantum quench, and the structure of steady states for these families of models. We show that noise unbiased around the dual-unitary family leads to exactly solvable models, even if dual-unitarity is strongly violated. We prove that any channel unital in both space and time directions can be written as an affine combination of a particular class of dual-unitary gates. Finally, we extend the definition of solvable initial states to matrix-product density operators. We completely classify them when their tensor admits a local purification.
We consider a class of quantum lattice models in 1+1 dimensions represented as local quantum circuits that enjoy a particular dual-unitarity property. In essence, this property ensures that both the evolution in time and that in space are given in terms of unitary transfer matrices. We show that for this class of circuits, generically nonintegrable, one can compute explicitly all dynamical correlations of local observables. Our result is exact, nonpertubative, and holds for any dimension d of the local Hilbert space. In the minimal case of qubits (d=2) we also present a classification of all dual-unitary circuits which allows us to single out a number of distinct classes for the behavior of the dynamical correlations. We find noninteracting classes, where all correlations are preserved, the ergodic and mixing one, where all correlations decay, and, interestingly, also classes that are both interacting and nonergodic.
We devise tractable models of unitary quantum many-body dynamics on tree graphs, as a first step toward a deeper understanding of dynamics in non-Euclidean spaces. To this end, we first demonstrate how to construct strictly local quantum circuits that preserve the symmetries of trees, such that their dynamical light cones grow isotropically. For trees with coordination number z , such circuits can be built from z -site gates. We then introduce a family of gates for which the dynamics are exactly solvable; these satisfy a set of constraints that we term “tree-unitarity.” Notably, tree-unitarity reduces to the previously established notion of dual-unitarity for z = 2 , when the tree reduces to a line. Among the unexpected features of tree-unitarity is a trade-off between “maximum butterfly velocity” dynamics of out-of-time-order correlators and the existence of nonvanishing correlation functions in multiple directions, a tension absent in one-dimensional dual-unitary models and their Euclidean generalizations. We connect the existence of (a wide class of) solvable dynamics with nonmaximal butterfly velocity directly to a property of the underlying circuit geometry called δ -hyperbolicity, and argue that such dynamics can only arise in non-Euclidean geometries. We give various examples of tree-unitary gates, discuss dynamical correlations, out-of-time-order correlators, and entanglement growth, and show that the kicked Ising model on a tree is a physically motivated example of maximum-velocity tree-unitary dynamics.
Abstract Dual-unitary brickwork circuits are an exactly-solvable model for many-body chaotic quantum systems, based on 2-site gates which are unitary in both the time and space directions. Prosen has recently described an alternative model called dual-unitary interactions round-a-face, which we here call clockwork, based on 2-controlled 1-site unitaries composed in a non-brickwork structure, yet with many of the same attractive global properties. We present a 2-categorical framework that simultaneously generalizes these two existing models, and use it to show that brickwork and clockwork circuits can interact richly, yielding new types of generalized heterogeneous circuits. We show that these interactions are governed by quantum combinatorial data, which we precisely characterize. These generalized circuits remain exactly-solvable and we show that they retain the attractive features of the original models such as single-site correlation functions vanishing everywhere except on the causal light-cone. Our framework allows us to directly extend the notion of solvable initial states to these biunitary circuits, and we show these circuits demonstrate maximal entanglement growth and exact thermalization after finitely many time steps.
We propose a new type of locally interacting quantum circuits—quantum cellular automata—that are generated by unitary interactions round-a-face (IRF). Specifically, we discuss a set (or manifold) of dual-unitary IRFs with local Hilbert space dimension d [DUIRF(d)], which generate unitary evolutions both in space and time directions of an extended 1+1 dimensional lattice. We show how arbitrary dynamical correlation functions of local observables can be evaluated in terms of finite-dimensional completely positive trace preserving unital maps in complete analogy to recently studied circuits made of dual-unitary brick gates (DUBGs). The simplest non-vanishing local correlation functions in dual-unitary IRF circuits are shown to involve observables non-trivially supported on two neighboring sites. We completely characterize the ten-dimensional manifold of DUIRF(2) for qubits (d=2) and provide, for d=3,4,…,7, empirical estimates of its dimensionality based on numerically determined dimensions of tangent spaces at an ensemble of random instances of dual-unitary IRF gates. In parallel, we apply the same algorithm to determine dimDUBG(d) and show that they are of similar order though systematically larger than dimDUIRF(d) for d=2,3,…,7. It is remarkable that both sets have a rather complex topology for d≥3 in the sense that the dimension of the tangent space varies among different randomly generated points of the set. Finally, we provide additional data on dimensionality of the chiral extension of DUBG circuits with distinct local Hilbert spaces of dimensions d≠d′ residing at even/odd lattice sites.