Strong symmetries enforce non-trivial quantum entanglement patterns on the stationary states of symmetric open quantum dynamics. Specifically, non-commuting conserved quantities lead to long-range quantum entanglement even for infinite temperature mixed states within fixed symmetry sectors. Leveraging the commutant algebra framework, we show that various bipartite entanglement measures for mixed states -- including exact and asymptotically-exact entanglement costs and squashed entanglement, which are generally intractable for a generic many-body mixed state -- can be computed for this class of states. In particular, we focus on strongly symmetric maximally mixed states arising from the Temperley-Lieb model, which features quantum Hilbert space fragmentation with exponentially large (in system size) non-Abelian commutants. We find that while both the logarithmic negativity and the `exact' entanglement cost for equal-size bipartitions scale with the volume of the system, the entanglement of formation, squashed entanglement, entanglement cost, and distillable entanglement exhibit subextensive scaling. We relate this separation in entanglement measures to a parametric difference between the entanglement cost of exact and asymptotically-exact state preparations, and infer this to be a consequence of a particular pattern of quantum Hilbert space fragmentation.
Strong symmetries enforce non-trivial quantum entanglement patterns on the stationary states of symmetric open quantum dynamics. Specifically, non-commuting conserved quantities lead to long-range quantum entanglement even for infinite temperature mixed states within fixed symmetry sectors. Leveraging the commutant algebra framework, we show that various bipartite entanglement measures for mixed states -- including exact and asymptotically-exact entanglement costs and squashed entanglement, which are generally intractable for a generic many-body mixed state -- can be computed for this class of states. In particular, we focus on strongly symmetric maximally mixed states arising from the Temperley-Lieb model, which features quantum Hilbert space fragmentation with exponentially large (in system size) non-Abelian commutants. We find that while both the logarithmic negativity and the `exact' entanglement cost for equal-size bipartitions scale with the volume of the system, the entanglement of formation, squashed entanglement, entanglement cost, and distillable entanglement exhibit subextensive scaling. We relate this separation in entanglement measures to a parametric difference between the entanglement cost of exact and asymptotically-exact state preparations, and infer this to be a consequence of a particular pattern of quantum Hilbert space fragmentation.
We find that the presence of strong non-Abelian symmetries can lead to highly entangled stationary states even for unital quantum channels. We derive exact expressions for the bipartite logarithmic negativity, Rényi negativities, and operator space entanglement for stationary states restricted to one symmetric subspace, with focus on the trivial subspace. We prove that these apply to open quantum evolutions whose commutants, characterizing all strongly conserved quantities, correspond to either the universal enveloping algebra of a Lie algebra or the Read-Saleur commutants. The latter provides an example of quantum fragmentation, whose dimension is exponentially large in system size. We find a general upper bound for all these quantities given by the logarithm of the dimension of the commutant on the smaller bipartition of the chain. As Abelian examples, we show that strong U(1) symmetries and classical fragmentation lead to separable stationary states in any symmetric subspace. In contrast, for non-Abelian SU ( N ) symmetries, both logarithmic and Rényi negativities scale logarithmically with system size. Finally, we prove that, while Rényi negativities with n > 2 scale logarithmically with system size, the logarithmic negativity (as well as generalized Rényi negativities with n < 2 ) exhibits a volume-law scaling for the Read-Saleur commutants. Our derivations rely on the commutant possessing a Hopf algebra structure in the limit of infinitely large systems and, hence, also apply to finite groups and quantum groups.
Entanglement in quantum many-body systems is typically fragile to interactions with the environment. Generic unital quantum channels, for example, have the maximally mixed state with no entanglement as their unique steady state. However, we find that for a unital quantum channel that is “strongly symmetric,” i.e., it preserves a global on-site symmetry, the maximally mixed steady state in certain symmetry sectors can be highly entangled. For a given symmetry, we analyze the entanglement and correlations of the maximally mixed state in the invariant sector (MMIS) and show that the entanglement of formation and distillation are exactly computable and equal for any bipartition. For all Abelian symmetries, the MMIS is separable and for all non-Abelian symmetries, the MMIS is entangled. Remarkably, for non-Abelian continuous symmetries described by compact semisimple Lie groups (e.g., SU(2)), the bipartite entanglement of formation for the MMIS scales logarithmically with the number of qudits N . Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Entanglement asymmetry provides a quantitative measure of symmetry breaking in many-body quantum states. Focusing on inhomogeneous U(1) charges, such as dipole and multipole moments, we show that the typical asymmetry is bounded by a universal fraction of its maximal value. Multipole charges naturally arise in systems with Hilbert-space fragmentation, where the dynamics splits into exponentially many disconnected sectors. Using the commutant algebra formalism, we generalize entanglement asymmetry to account for fragmentation. While the asymmetry grows logarithmically for conventional symmetries, it can scale extensively in fragmented systems and distinguish classical from quantum fragmentation. We derive general upper bounds for the asymmetry and identify states that saturate them. To study the typical behavior of the asymmetry, we consider the ensemble of random matrix product states. By identifying the bond dimension with an effective time parameter, we qualitatively reproduce recent results on asymmetry dynamics in random quantum circuits, suggesting a universal behavior for the asymmetry of U(1) charges in local ergodic systems.
We investigate the phenomenon of Hilbert space fragmentation (HSF) in open quantum systems and find that it can stabilize highly entangled steady states. For concreteness, we consider the Temperley-Lieb model, which exhibits quantum HSF in an entangled basis, and investigate the Lindblad dynamics under two different couplings. First, we couple the system to a dephasing bath that reduces quantum fragmentation to a classical one with the resulting stationary state being separable. We observe that despite vanishing quantum correlations, classical correlations develop due to fluctuations of the remaining conserved quantities, which we show can be captured by a classical stochastic circuit evolution. Second, we use a coupling that preserves the quantum fragmentation structure. We derive a general expression for the steady state, which has a strong coherent memory of the initial state due to the extensive number of noncommuting conserved quantities. We then show that it is highly entangled as quantified by logarithmic negativity.
We find that rank deficiency of the local Hamiltonian in a classically fragmented model is the key mechanism leading to quantum Hilbert space fragmentation. The rank deficiency produces local null directions that can generate entangled frozen states (EFS): entangled states embedded in mobile classical Krylov sectors that do not evolve under Hamiltonian dynamics. When the entangled frozen subspace is non-empty, the mobile classical sector splits into a mobile quantum Krylov subspace and an entangled frozen subspace, and the model exhibits quantum fragmentation. We establish this mechanism in four models of increasing symmetry structure: an asymmetric qubit projector with no symmetry, the Z2-symmetric GHZ projector, a Z3-symmetric cyclic qutrit projector, and the Temperley-Lieb model. For the asymmetric and GHZ projector models, we obtain closed-form expressions for irreducible Krylov dimensions, degeneracies, and sector multiplicities. The all-mobile-sector EFS in these two models exhibits a sub-volume-law bipartite entanglement entropy scaling as S∼L. Further, we introduce the notion of weak and strong quantum fragmentation, the quantum counterpart of the weak-strong distinction in classical fragmentation. After removing the EFS, the mobile quantum Krylov subspace decomposes into irreducible blocks. In the weak case, the number of irreducible blocks remains O(1), each is individually ergodic with Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble (GOE) level statistics, and the unresolved spectrum follows an mGOE distribution. In the strong case, the number of irreducible blocks grows with system size, and the gap-ratio distribution approaches Poisson as L→∞.
We present a new mechanism for long-range entanglement (LRE) in strongly symmetric many-body mixed states that does not rely on symmetry anomalies or long-range correlations. Our primary example is the maximally mixed state in the translation-invariant subspace on a one-dimensional ring. This state is LRE because translationally symmetric short-range entangled states span a subspace whose dimension grows only polynomially with system size, whereas the full translation-invariant subspace grows exponentially. We further discuss certain unconventional properties of this state, including logarithmically growing conditional mutual information, strong-to-weak spontaneous symmetry-breaking, and Rényi-index-dependent operator-space entanglement. We also construct a geometrically non-local Lindbladian to stabilize this state as the steady state. Our results identify dimensional mismatch as a novel route to LRE that is intrinsic to many-body mixed states.