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arXiv:2604.05031

Geometry of Free Fermion Commutants

Marco Lastres, Sanjay Moudgalya

quant-phcond-mat.stat-mechcond-mat.str-elhep-thmath-phSubmitted Apr 6, 2026• Announced Apr 8, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Understanding the structure of operators that commute with $k$ identical replicas of unitary ensembles, also known as their $k$-commutants, is an important problem in quantum many-body physics with deep implications for the late-time behavior of physical quantities such as correlation functions and entanglement entropies under unitary evolution. In this work, we study the $k$-commutants of free-fermion unitary systems, which are heuristically known to contain $SO(k)$ and $SU(k)$ groups without and with particle number conservation respectively, with formal derivations of projectors onto these commutants appearing only very recently. We establish a complementary perspective by highlighting a larger $O(2k)$ replica symmetry (or $SU(2k)$ respectively) that the $k$-commutant transforms irreducibly under, which leads to a simple geometric understanding of the commutant in terms of coherent states parametrized by a Grassmannian manifold. We derive this structure by mapping the $k$-commutant to the ground state of effective ferromagnetic Heisenberg models, analogous to the ones that appear in the noisy circuit literature, which we solve exactly using standard representation theory methods. Further, we show that the Grassmannian manifold of the $k$-commutant is exactly the manifold of fermionic Gaussian states on $2k$ sites, which reveals a duality between real space and replica space in free-fermion systems. This geometric understanding also provides a compact projection formula onto the $k$-commutant, based on the resolution of identity for coherent states, which can prove advantageous in analytical calculations of averaged non-linear functionals of Gaussian states, as we demonstrate using some examples for the entanglement entropies. In all, this work provides a geometric perspective on the $k$-commutant of free-fermions that naturally connects to problems in quantum many-body physics.

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13+13 pages

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Understanding the structure of operators that commute with kkk identical replicas of unitary ensembles, also known as their kkk-commutants, is an important problem in quantum many-body physics with deep implications for the late-time behavior of physical quantities such as correlation functions and entanglement entropies under unitary evolution. In this work, we study the kkk-commutants of free-fermion unitary systems, which are heuristically known to contain SO(k)SO(k)SO(k) and SU(k)SU(k)SU(k) groups without and with particle number conservation respectively, with formal derivations of projectors onto these commutants appearing only very recently. We establish a complementary perspective by highlighting a larger O(2k)O(2k)O(2k) replica symmetry (or SU(2k)SU(2k)SU(2k) respectively) that the kkk-commutant transforms irreducibly under, which leads to a simple geometric understanding of the commutant in terms of coherent states parametrized by a Grassmannian manifold. We derive this structure by mapping the kkk-commutant to the ground state of effective ferromagnetic Heisenberg models, analogous to the ones that appear in the noisy circuit literature, which we solve exactly using standard representation theory methods. Further, we show that the Grassmannian manifold of the kkk-commutant is exactly the manifold of fermionic Gaussian states on 2k2k2k sites, which reveals a duality between real space and replica space in free-fermion systems. This geometric understanding also provides a compact projection formula onto the kkk-commutant, based on the resolution of identity for coherent states, which can prove advantageous in analytical calculations of averaged non-linear functionals of Gaussian states, as we demonstrate using some examples for the entanglement entropies. In all, this work provides a geometric perspective on the kkk-commutant of free-fermions that naturally connects to problems in quantum many-body physics.
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We study unitary quantum dynamics in noisy Brownian models with global continuous symmetries, such as U(1)U(1)U(1) and SU(2)SU(2)SU(2), focusing on Rényi entanglement entropies and hydrodynamic and non-hydrodynamic correlators. By mapping the averaged late-time dynamics to the low-energy physics of effective replica Hamiltonians, we find that the evolution is controlled by the quantum geometry of their ground-state manifolds, which is directly related to the geometry of kkk-commutants---the symmetry algebra of kkk replicas of the system. In interacting systems, these kkk-commutants are generically determined solely by the symmetries of the system, independent of microscopic details of the noisy evolution. This allows us to use the time-dependent variational principle (TDVP) to provide simple geometric explanations for the sub-ballistic Rényi entanglement growth and the anomalous decay of non-hydrodynamic correlators in interacting systems with continuous symmetries. We find this behavior to be intimately connected to singularities within the kkk-commutant manifolds, arising from frozen ``void'' states in the Hilbert space that exist due to continuous on-site symmetries. This also demystifies the important role of voids in the dynamics of these observables, previously identified in U(1)U(1)U(1) symmetric systems. We compare these behaviors in interacting systems with Abelian and non-Abelian continuous symmetries and in free-fermion systems, which differ in the geometry of their kkk-commutants. Ultimately, this work provides a general geometric framework for systematically studying observables in noisy systems with continuous symmetries, including Haar-random circuits.
In this work, we characterize the ttt-th order commutants of fermionic Gaussian unitaries and of their particle-preserving subgroup acting on nnn fermionic modes. These commutants govern Haar averages over the corresponding groups and therefore play a central role in fermionic randomized protocols, invariant theory, and resource quantification. Using Howe dualities, we show that the particle-preserving commutant is generated by generalized copy-hopping operators, while that for general Gaussian commutant is generated by generalized quadratic Majorana bilinears together with parity. We then derive closed formulas for the dimensions of both commutants as functions of ttt and nnn, and develop constructive Gelfand--Tsetlin procedures to obtain explicit orthonormal bases, with detailed low-ttt examples. Our framework also clarifies the structure of replicated fermionic states and connects naturally to measures of fermionic correlations, generalized Plücker-type constraints, and the stabilizer entropy of fermionic Gaussian states. These results provide a unified algebraic description of higher-order invariants for fermionic Gaussian dynamics.
Understanding the non-equilibrium dynamics of quantum many-body systems plays a central role in modern many-body physics. Intriguing insights emerge from investigating how quantum resources, which are essential for achieving unambiguous quantumness, are generated and spread under chaotic quantum dynamics. In fermionic systems, non-Gaussianity constitutes an important resource beyond entanglement, characterizing the deviation of generic quantum states from free-fermion states. In this Letter, we propose using the \textit{replica twist entropy}, defined through the expectation value of a replica rotation operator with a tunable angle ααα, as a natural probe of non-Gaussianity in pure fermionic states. After deriving its behavior for typical many-body states, we establish a general framework for analyzing the replica twist entropy in solvable Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev models in the large-NNN limit. Applying this framework to the dynamics of the thermofield double state, we uncover a novel dynamical phase diagram in the parameter space of ααα and evolution time ttt, exhibiting spontaneous Z2Z_2Z2​ symmetry breaking at α=π/4α=π/4α=π/4 and universal cusps as a function of ααα in the long-time regime. Our results pave the way for studying non-Gaussianity in strongly correlated fermionic systems and reveal a new class of dynamical transitions probed by non-Gaussianity.
Exact fermion to qubit transformations are conventionally regarded as algorithmic tools that translate many-body Hamiltonians into qubit representations for quantum simulation. Here we show that they also define intrinsic geometric representations whose structure encodes physically meaningful information beyond spectral equivalence. We develop a geometric framework based on weighted hypergraphs and coupling space representations constructed from the Bravyi--Kitaev (BK) and Xia--Bian--Kais (XBK) encodings. Within the BK representation, we introduce a geometric observable that compares the algebraic connectivities of the kinetic and interaction hypergraphs, derive its exact analytical dependence on interaction strength, and uncover two geometric universality classes together with an exact spectral organization originating from the binary tree architecture of the encoding. The complementary XBK representation describes the evolution of encoded Hamiltonians through probability measures in coupling space, where optimal transport quantifies interaction-driven reorganization independently of the spectral analysis. Applications to the Hubbard, spinless tV , single impurity Anderson, and Kitaev models demonstrate that these connectivity and transport based geometric descriptions consistently capture the structural evolution of encoded quantum Hamiltonians across distinct classes of many-body systems. Our results establish hypergraph geometry as a new framework for understanding fermion-to-qubit encodings,revealing that they serve not only as computational mappings but also as geometric representations of quantum many-body Hamiltonians.
Understanding the computational complexity of quantum states is a central challenge in quantum many-body physics. In qubit systems, fermionic Gaussian states can be efficiently simulated on classical computers and hence can be employed as a natural baseline for evaluating quantum complexity. In this work, we develop a framework for quantifying fermionic magic resources, also referred to as fermionic non-Gaussianity, which constitutes an essential resource for universal quantum computation. We leverage the algebraic structure of the fermionic commutant to define the fermionic antiflatness (FAF)—an efficiently computable and experimentally accessible measure of non-Gaussianity, with a clear physical interpretation in terms of Majorana fermion correlation functions. Studying systems in equilibrium, we show that FAF detects phase transitions, reveals universal features of critical points, and uncovers special solvable points in many-body systems. Extending the analysis to out-of-equilibrium settings, we demonstrate that fermionic magic resources become more abundant in highly excited eigenstates of many-body systems. We further investigate the growth and saturation of FAF under ergodic many-body dynamics, highlighting the roles of conservation laws and locality in constraining the increase of non-Gaussianity during unitary evolution. This work provides a framework for probing quantum many-body complexity from the perspective of fermionic Gaussian states and opens up directions for investigating fermionic magic resources in many-body systems. Our results establish fermionic non-Gaussianity, alongside entanglement and nonstabilizerness, as a resource relevant not only to foundational studies but also to experimental platforms aiming to achieve quantum advantage.