Quantum entanglement uncovers the essential principles of quantum matter, yet determining its structure in realistic many-body systems poses significant challenges. Here, we employ a protocol, dubbed entanglement microscopy, to reveal the multipartite entanglement encoded in the full reduced density matrix of the microscopic subregion in spin and fermionic many-body systems. We exemplify our method by studying the phase diagram near quantum critical points (QCP) in 2 spatial dimensions: the transverse field Ising model and a Gross-Neveu-Yukawa transition of Dirac fermions. Our main results are: i) the Ising QCP exhibits short-range entanglement with a finite sudden death of the LN both in space and temperature; ii) the Gross-Neveu QCP has a power-law decaying fermionic LN consistent with conformal field theory (CFT) exponents; iii) going beyond bipartite entanglement, we find no detectable 3-party entanglement with our two witnesses in a large parameter window near the Ising QCP in 2d, in contrast to 1d. We further establish the singular scaling of general multipartite entanglement measures at criticality and present an explicit analysis in the tripartite case. Quantum entanglement contains important information about quantum systems, but its calculation is challenging. Here the authors develop a quantum Monte Carlo technique for full tomography on microscopic subregions of a system, enabling extraction of multipartite quantum entanglement in large scale models.
Quantum entanglement uncovers the essential principles of quantum matter, yet determining its structure in realistic many-body systems poses significant challenges. Here, we employ a protocol, dubbed entanglement microscopy, to reveal the multipartite entanglement encoded in the full reduced density matrix of the microscopic subregion in spin and fermionic many-body systems. We exemplify our method by studying the phase diagram near quantum critical points (QCP) in 2 spatial dimensions: the transverse field Ising model and a Gross-Neveu-Yukawa transition of Dirac fermions. Our main results are: i) the Ising QCP exhibits short-range entanglement with a finite sudden death of the LN both in space and temperature; ii) the Gross-Neveu QCP has a power-law decaying fermionic LN consistent with conformal field theory (CFT) exponents; iii) going beyond bipartite entanglement, we find no detectable 3-party entanglement with our two witnesses in a large parameter window near the Ising QCP in 2d, in contrast to 1d. We further establish the singular scaling of general multipartite entanglement measures at criticality and present an explicit analysis in the tripartite case. Quantum entanglement contains important information about quantum systems, but its calculation is challenging. Here the authors develop a quantum Monte Carlo technique for full tomography on microscopic subregions of a system, enabling extraction of multipartite quantum entanglement in large scale models.
Entanglement microscopy reveals the true quantum correlations among the microscopic building blocks of many-body systems [Nat. Commun. 16, 96 (2025)]. Using this approach, we study the multipartite entanglement of the quantum Ising model in 1D, 2D, and 3D. We first obtain the full reduced density matrix (tomography) of subregions that have at most four sites via quantum Monte Carlo, exact diagonalization, and the exact solution in 1D. We then analyze both bipartite and genuine multipartite entanglement (GME) among the sites in the subregion. To do so, we use a variety of measures including the negativity, as well as a true measure of GME: the genuinely multipartite concurrence (or GME concurrence), and its computationally cheaper lower bound I2. We provide a complete proof that I2 bounds the GME concurrence, and show how the symmetries of the state simplify its evaluation. For adjacent sites, we find three- and four-spin GME present across large portions of the phase diagram, reaching a maximum near the quantum critical point. In 1D, we identify the singular scaling of the derivative dI2/dh approaching the critical point. We observe a sharp decrease in GME with increasing dimensionality, consistent with the monogamous nature of entanglement. Furthermore, we find that GME vanishes for subregions consisting of nonadjacent sites in both 2D and 3D, offering a stark illustration of the short-ranged nature of entanglement in equilibrium quantum matter [arXiv:2402.06677]. Finally, we analyze the most collective form of entanglement by evaluating the GME concurrence among all spins in the lattice, which can be obtained from a simple observable: the single-site transverse magnetization. This global concurrence is larger in 1D compared to 2D and 3D, but it is relatively less robust against perturbations such as local measurements.
Quantum critical points beyond the Landau paradigm exhibit fractionalized excitations and emergent gauge fields. Here, we use entanglement microscopy--full tomography of the reduced density matrix of small subregions and subsequent extraction of their quantum correlations--to resolve the entanglement architecture near such exotic critical points. We focus on genuine multipartite entanglement (GME). Through unbiased quantum Monte Carlo sampling of RDMs across conventional O(2)/O(3) Wilson-Fisher transitions, and unconventional XY∗, and Néel-VBS transitions in (2+1)d, we discover a dichotomy: Landau criticality amplifies GME within compact subregions, while non-Landau criticality redistributes entanglement into larger, loopy configurations. Key signatures at non-Landau criticality include the absence of three-spin GME, and the loss of non-loopy entanglement in unicursal regions. Similar results in a critical resonating valence bond wavefunction confirm this multipartite entanglement structure as a common feature of emergent gauge theories. Our findings reveal a distinct entanglement architecture in beyond-Landau quantum critical theories.
Multipartite-entanglement tomography, namely the quantum Fisher information (QFI) calculated with respect to different collective operators, allows to fully characterize the phase diagram of the quantum Ising chain in a transverse field with variable-range interaction. In particular, it recognizes the phase stemming from long-range (LR) antiferromagnetic interaction, a capability also shared by the spin squeezing. Furthermore, the QFI locates the quantum critical points, both with vanishing and nonvanishing mass gap. In this case, we also relate the finite-size power-law exponent of the QFI to the critical exponents of the model, finding a signal for the breakdown of conformal invariance in the deep LR regime. Finally, the effect of a finite temperature on the multipartite entanglement, and ultimately on the phase stability, is considered. In light of the current realizations of the model with trapped ions and of the potential measurability of the QFI, our approach yields a promising strategy to probe LR physics in controllable quantum systems.
Entanglement entropy has become an important tool for identifying phases of matter and phase transitions in quantum systems using quantum Monte Carlo methods. While such approaches have achieved great success in systems composed of interacting spins/bosons, their application to interacting fermionic systems remains limited due to substantially higher computational cost. Here we show a more efficient Monte Carlo algorithm for fermionic systems that enables systematic exploration of entanglement entropy across a wide range of physical parameters. Based on the incremental technique along physical parameters, the method significantly reduces computational effort while maintaining accuracy. Using this approach, we study a two-dimensional square lattice Hubbard model, revealing the phase diagram that includes the Fermi surface and Goldstone modes. We further apply the method to the Gross-Neveu criticality and find that the scaling of the entanglement entropy follows a universal form quantified by the critical exponent ν. Further investigation reveals that the leading coefficient of the entanglement entropy decreases monotonically, rather than developing a local maximum as O(N) transition point. Entanglement entropy is a powerful tool for identifying quantum phases and phase transitions but calculating it in interacting fermionic systems remains challenging. Here, the authors introduce an efficient Monte Carlo method that reduces computational cost and reveals universal scaling across Gross-Neveu fermionic phase transitions.
Characterizing universal entanglement features in higher-dimensional quantum matter is a central goal of quantum information science and condensed matter physics. While the subleading corner terms in two-dimensional quantum systems encapsulate essential universal information of the underlying conformal field theory, our understanding of these features remains remarkably limited compared to their one-dimensional counterparts. We address this challenge by investigating the entanglement dynamics of fermionic systems along the imaginary-time evolution. We uncover a pioneering non-equilibrium scaling law where the corner entanglement entropy grows linearly with the logarithm of imaginary time, dictated solely by the universality class of the quantum critical point. Through unbiased Quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we verify this scaling in the interacting Gross-Neveu-Yukawa model, demonstrating that universal data can be accurately recovered from the early stages of relaxation. Our findings significantly circumvent the computational bottlenecks inherent in reaching full equilibrium convergence. This work establishes a direct link between the fundamental theory of non-equilibrium critical phenomena and the high-precision determination of universal entanglement properties on both classical and quantum platforms, paving the way for probing the rich entanglement structure of quantum critical systems.
Multipartite entanglement in the 1-D spin-21 Heisenberg Antiferromagnet
Multipartite entanglement refers to the simultaneous entanglement between multiple subsystems of a many-body quantum system. While multipartite entanglement can be difficult to quantify analytically, it is known that it can be witnessed through the Quantum Fisher information (QFI), a quantity that can also be related to dynamical Kubo response functions. In this work, we first show that the finite temperature QFI can generally be expressed in terms of a static structure factor of the system, plus a correction that vanishes as T→0. We argue that this implies that the static structure factor witnesses multipartite entanglement near quantum critical points at temperatures below a characteristic energy scale that is determined by universal properties, up to a non-universal amplitude. Therefore, in systems with a known static structure factor, we can deduce finite temperature scaling of multipartite entanglement and low temperature entanglement depth without knowledge of the full dynamical response function of the system. This is particularly useful to study 1D quantum critical systems in which sub-power-law divergences can dominate entanglement growth, where the conventional scaling theory of the QFI breaks down. The 1D spin-21 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model is an important example of such a system, and we show that multipartite entanglement in the Heisenberg chain diverges non-trivially as ∼log(1/T)3/2. We verify these predictions with calculations of the QFI using conformal field theory and matrix product state simulations. Finally we discuss the implications of our results for experiments to probe entanglement in quantum materials, comparing to neutron scattering data in KCuF3, a material well-described by the Heisenberg chain.