We study the entanglement dynamics of a family of quantum collision models by analytically solving the pairwise concurrence for all qubit pairs. We introduce a diagrammatic method that offers an intuitive, frame-by-frame understanding of these dynamics. This allows us to monitor how a single collision affects the entanglement of the whole many-body system in some special cases. We focus on a class of models where the square of concurrence is a conserved quantity in the qubit collisions, aiding us to formulate general rules of entanglement propagation. In particular, among the multiple examples we will be showing, we identify a type of genuine multipartite entanglement, which we refer to as \textit{entanglement quilt}, where every qubit is entangled with every other qubit. We find that in some models, an entanglement quilt is hypersensitive to local excitation fluctuations: The presence of even a single excited qubit can destroy the entanglement quilts. We offer a detailed mathematical treatment on the phenomena, which can help us understand the disappearance of long-range entanglement in condensed matter systems above zero temperature. We also speculate about a possible property of the entanglement quilt: Every subsystem of it is entangled with every other subsystem.
We study the entanglement dynamics of a family of quantum collision models by analytically solving the pairwise concurrence for all qubit pairs. We introduce a diagrammatic method that offers an intuitive, frame-by-frame understanding of these dynamics. This allows us to monitor how a single collision affects the entanglement of the whole many-body system in some special cases. We focus on a class of models where the square of concurrence is a conserved quantity in the qubit collisions, aiding us to formulate general rules of entanglement propagation. In particular, among the multiple examples we will be showing, we identify a type of genuine multipartite entanglement, which we refer to as \textit{entanglement quilt}, where every qubit is entangled with every other qubit. We find that in some models, an entanglement quilt is hypersensitive to local excitation fluctuations: The presence of even a single excited qubit can destroy the entanglement quilts. We offer a detailed mathematical treatment on the phenomena, which can help us understand the disappearance of long-range entanglement in condensed matter systems above zero temperature. We also speculate about a possible property of the entanglement quilt: Every subsystem of it is entangled with every other subsystem.
The quantum collision models are a useful method to describe the dynamics of an open quantum system by means of repeated interactions between the system and some particles of the environment, which are usually termed “ancillas”. In this paper, we review the main collision models for the dynamics of multipartite open quantum systems, which are composed of several subsystems. In particular, we are interested in models that are based on elementary collisions between the subsystems and the ancillas, and that simulate global and/or local Markovian master equations in the limit of infinitesimal timestep. After discussing the mathematical details of the derivation of a generic collision-based master equation, we provide the general ideas at the basis of the collision models for multipartite systems, we discuss their strengths and limitations, and we show how they may be simulated on a quantum computer. Moreover, we analyze some properties of a collision model based on entangled ancillas, derive the master equation it generates for small timesteps, and prove that the coefficients of this master equation are subject to a constraint that limits their generality. Finally, we present an example of such collision model with two bosonic ancillas entangled in a two-mode squeezed thermal state.
Quantum entanglement manifests itself in non-local correlations between the constituents of a system. In its simplest realization, a measurement on one subsystem is affected by a prior measurement on its partner, irrespective of their separation. For multiple parties, purely collective types of entanglement exist but their detection, even theoretically, remains an outstanding open question. Here, we argue that all forms of multipartite entanglement entirely disappear during the typical evolution of a physical state as it heats up, evolves in time in a large family of dynamical protocols, or as its parts become separated. We focus on the generic case where the system interacts with an environment. These results mainly follow from the geometry of the entanglement-free continent in the space of physical states, and hold in great generality. We illustrate these phenomena with a frustrated molecular quantum magnet in and out of equilibrium, and a quantum spin chain. In contrast, if the particles are fermions, such as electrons, another notion of entanglement exists that protects bipartite quantum correlations. However, genuinely collective fermionic entanglement disappears during typical evolution, thus sharing the same fate as in bosonic systems. These findings provide fundamental knowledge about the structure of entanglement in quantum matter and architectures, paving the way for its manipulation.
We investigate the selective generation of Bell-pair entanglement in three qubit networks using a standard quantum collision model. By varying the network geometry, the node contacted by the ancilla, and the interaction Hamiltonians, we identify configurations in which high pairwise concurrence and Bell state fidelity are generated between different target qubits, including nonadjacent qubits and qubits not directly coupled to the ancilla. For comparison, we also consider the continuous time unitary evolution of the complete ancilla network system, sampled at the same discrete time intervals. This reference calculation clarifies how discarding each outgoing ancilla and removing its correlations from subsequent dynamics modifies the attainable entanglement and preparation time. Our results provide a proof of principle demonstration of geometry dependent Bell pair generation and routing in small qubit networks.
We examine entanglement dynamics via concurrence among four two-state systems labelled A , a , B , b . The four systems are arranged on an addressable 'lattice' in such a way that A and a at one location labelled Aa can interact with each other via excitation exchange, and the same for B and b at location Bb . The Aa location is prepared entangled with the Bb location, but their mutual complete isolation prevents interaction in the interval between actions of an external addressing agent. There are six pairwise concurrences on the lattice, and we follow their evolution in the interval between external actions. We show how entanglement evolves and may exhibit the non-analytic effect termed entanglement sudden death (ESD), with periodic recovery. These loss and gain processes may be interpreted as entanglement transfers between the subsystems.
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.
We investigate the emergence and properties of long-distance genuine multipartite entanglement, induced via three localized magnetic defects, in a one-dimensional transverse-field XX spin-1/2 chain. Using both analytical and numerical techniques, we determine the conditions for the existence of bound states localized at the defects. We find that the reduced density matrix (RDM) of the defects exhibits long-distance genuine multipartite entanglement (GME) across the whole range of the Hamiltonian parameter space, including regions where the two-qubit concurrence is zero. We quantify the entanglement by using numerical lower bounds for the GME concurrence, as well as by analytically deriving the GME concurrence in regions where the RDM is of rank 2. Our work provides insights into generating multipartite entanglement in many-body quantum systems via local control techniques.