Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2604.15300

Ensembles of random quantum states tunable from volume law to area law

Héloïse Albot, Sebastian Paeckel

quant-phmath-phSubmitted Apr 16, 2026• Announced Apr 17, 2026• 0 citations
v1 · Apr 16, 2026v2 · Jul 3, 2026
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A standard approach to generate random pure quantum states relies on sampling from the Haar measure. However, the entanglement properties of such states present a fundamental challenge for their general applicability. Here, we introduce the $σ$-ensembles $\unicode{x2013}$ a family of random quantum states with only a single control parameter. Crucially, these states are designed such that they can be tuned between volume-law and area-law behavior, which has been a major obstacle thus far. We construct representatives of this ensemble by imposing a probability distribution on the eigenvalues of the successive subsystems, and subsequently reconstructing a compatible global state using the matrix product state (MPS) formalism. Due to their area-law entanglement, our approach circumvents the intractability of Haar-random pure states in classical simulations of quantum systems and is more representative of typical Hamiltonian ground states.

Comments
23 pages, 6 figures

Related papers

Thermal pure quantum matrix product states recovering a volume law entanglement

Atsushi Iwaki, Akira Shimizu, Chisa Hotta

We propose a way to construct a thermal pure quantum matrix product state (TPQ-MPS) that can simulate finite-temperature quantum many-body systems with a minimal numerical cost comparable to the matrix product algorithm for the ground state.The MPS was originally designed for the wave function with area law entanglement.However, by attaching the auxiliary sites to the edges of the random matrix product state, we find that the degree of entanglement is automatically tuned so as to recover the volume law of the entanglement entropy that characterizes the TPQ state.The finite-temperature physical quantities of the transverse Ising and the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chains evaluated by a TPQ-MPS show excellent agreement even for bond dimension ∼10-20 with those of the exact results.

arXiv:2005.06829•Physical Review Research•May 25, 2021•26 citations

Random Gaussian Augmented Matrix Product States

Stavya Puri, Poetri Sonya Tarabunga, Piotr Sierant

Strong entanglement limits the reach of tensor-network descriptions of quantum many-body systems. We study Gaussian-augmented matrix product states (GAMPS), formed by applying a free-fermionic (Gaussian) unitary to a matrix product state. To explore the capabilities of this family, we consider random GAMPS}, a minimally structured ensemble obtained by independently sampling random matrix product states and Gaussian unitaries. Exploiting the algebraic structure of Gaussian unitaries, we develop a replica tensor-network method that computes averages over the random GAMPS ensemble for hundreds of qubits. Random GAMPS exhibit nearly maximal volume-law entanglement already at modest bond dimension, while other quantum resource quantifiers rapidly approach Haar-random state values as the bond dimension increases. The entanglement scaling suggests an exponential reduction in the bond dimension needed to approach the volume-law entropy compared with unaugmented matrix product states. We find a state two-design behavior of random GAMPS at fixed accuracy with a bond dimension independent of system size. Our results reveal how Gaussian augmentation expands the expressive power of tensor networks.

quant-pharXiv:2609.25458•Sep 23, 2026•0 citations

Ensembles of physical states and random quantum circuits on graphs

Alioscia Hamma, Siddhartha Santra, Paolo Zanardi A

In this paper we continue and extend the investigations of the ensembles of random physical states introduced in Hamma et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 040502 (2012)]. These ensembles are constructed by finite-length random quantum circuits (RQC) acting on the (hyper)edges of an underlying (hyper)graph structure. The latter encodes for the locality structure associated with finite-time quantum evolutions generated by physical, i.e., local, Hamiltonians. Our goal is to analyze physical properties of typical states in these ensembles; in particular here we focus on proxies of quantum entanglement as purity and $\ensuremath{\alpha}$-Renyi entropies. The problem is formulated in terms of matrix elements of superoperators which depend on the graph structure, choice of probability measure over the local unitaries, and circuit length. In the $\ensuremath{\alpha}=2$ case these superoperators act on a restricted multiqubit space generated by permutation operators associated to the subsets of vertices of the graph. For permutationally invariant interactions the dynamics can be further restricted to an exponentially smaller subspace. We consider different families of RQCs and study their typical entanglement properties for finite time as well as their asymptotic behavior. We find that area law holds in average and that the volume law is a typical property (that is, it holds in average and the fluctuations around the average are vanishing for the large system) of physical states. The area law arises when the evolution time is $O(1)$ with respect to the size $L$ of the system, while the volume law arises as is typical when the evolution time scales like $O(L)$.

arXiv:1204.0288•Physical Review A•Nov 26, 2012•26 citations

Area law for random graph states

Benoı̂t Collins, Ion Nechita, Karol Życzkowski

Random pure states of multi-partite quantum systems, associated with arbitrary graphs, are investigated. Each vertex of the graph represents a generic interaction between subsystems, described by a random unitary matrix distributed according to the Haar measure, while each edge of the graph represents a bipartite, maximally entangled state. For any splitting of the graph into two parts we consider the corresponding partition of the quantum system and compute the average entropy of entanglement. First, in the special case where the partition does not cross any vertex of the graph, we show that the area law is satisfied exactly. In the general case, we show that the entropy of entanglement obeys an area law on average, this time with a correction term that depends on the topologies of the graph and of the partition. The results obtained are applied to the problem of distribution of quantum entanglement in a quantum network with prescribed topology.

arXiv:1302.0709•Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical•Jul 10, 2013•13 citations

Probing Entanglement and Symmetries in Random States Using a Superconducting Quantum Processor

Jia-Nan Yang, Lata Kh Joshi, Filiberto Ares +3 more

Quantum many-body systems display an extraordinary degree of complexity, yet many of their features are universal: they depend not on microscopic details, but on a few fundamental physical aspects such as symmetries. A central challenge is to distill these universal characteristics from model-specific ones. Random quantum states sampled from a uniform distribution, the Haar measure, provide a powerful framework for capturing this typicality. Here, we experimentally study the entanglement and symmetries of random many-body quantum states generated by evolving simple product states under ergodic Floquet models. We find excellent agreement with the predictions from the Haar-random state ensemble. First, we measure the Rényi-2 entanglement entropy as a function of the subsystem size, observing the Page curve. Second, we probe the subsystem symmetries using entanglement asymmetry. Finally, we measure the moments of partially transposed reduced density matrices obtained by tracing out part of the system in the generated ensembles, thereby revealing distinct entanglement phases. Our results offer an experimental perspective on the typical entanglement and symmetries of many-body quantum systems.

quant-pharXiv:2601.22224•Feb 2, 2026•0 citations

Phase-random states: Ensembles of states with fixed amplitudes and uniformly distributed phases in a fixed basis

Yoshifumi Nakata, Peter S. Turner, Mio Murao

Motivated by studies of typical properties of quantum states in statistical mechanics, we introduce phase-random states, an ensemble of pure states with fixed amplitudes and uniformly distributed phases in a fixed basis. We first give a sufficient condition for canonical states to typically appear in subsystems of phase-random states, which reveals a trade-off relation between the initial state in the bounded energy subspace and the energy eigenstates that define that subspace. We then investigate the simulatability of phase-random states, which is directly related to that of time evolution in closed systems, by studying their entanglement properties. We find that, starting from a separable state, time evolutions under Hamiltonians composed of only separable eigenstates generate extremely high entanglement and are difficult to simulate with matrix-product states. We also show that random quantum circuits consisting of only two-qubit diagonal unitaries can generate an ensemble with the same average entanglement as phase-random states.

arXiv:1111.2747•Physical Review A•Jul 3, 2012•28 citations
A standard approach to generate random pure quantum states relies on sampling from the Haar measure. However, the entanglement properties of such states present a fundamental challenge for their general applicability. Here, we introduce the σσσ-ensembles \unicodex2013\unicode{x2013}\unicodex2013 a family of random quantum states with only a single control parameter. Crucially, these states are designed such that they can be tuned between volume-law and area-law behavior, which has been a major obstacle thus far. We construct representatives of this ensemble by imposing a probability distribution on the eigenvalues of the successive subsystems, and subsequently reconstructing a compatible global state using the matrix product state (MPS) formalism. Due to their area-law entanglement, our approach circumvents the intractability of Haar-random pure states in classical simulations of quantum systems and is more representative of typical Hamiltonian ground states.
We propose a way to construct a thermal pure quantum matrix product state (TPQ-MPS) that can simulate finite-temperature quantum many-body systems with a minimal numerical cost comparable to the matrix product algorithm for the ground state.The MPS was originally designed for the wave function with area law entanglement.However, by attaching the auxiliary sites to the edges of the random matrix product state, we find that the degree of entanglement is automatically tuned so as to recover the volume law of the entanglement entropy that characterizes the TPQ state.The finite-temperature physical quantities of the transverse Ising and the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chains evaluated by a TPQ-MPS show excellent agreement even for bond dimension ∼10-20 with those of the exact results.
Strong entanglement limits the reach of tensor-network descriptions of quantum many-body systems. We study Gaussian-augmented matrix product states (GAMPS), formed by applying a free-fermionic (Gaussian) unitary to a matrix product state. To explore the capabilities of this family, we consider random GAMPS}, a minimally structured ensemble obtained by independently sampling random matrix product states and Gaussian unitaries. Exploiting the algebraic structure of Gaussian unitaries, we develop a replica tensor-network method that computes averages over the random GAMPS ensemble for hundreds of qubits. Random GAMPS exhibit nearly maximal volume-law entanglement already at modest bond dimension, while other quantum resource quantifiers rapidly approach Haar-random state values as the bond dimension increases. The entanglement scaling suggests an exponential reduction in the bond dimension needed to approach the volume-law entropy compared with unaugmented matrix product states. We find a state two-design behavior of random GAMPS at fixed accuracy with a bond dimension independent of system size. Our results reveal how Gaussian augmentation expands the expressive power of tensor networks.
In this paper we continue and extend the investigations of the ensembles of random physical states introduced in Hamma et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 040502 (2012)]. These ensembles are constructed by finite-length random quantum circuits (RQC) acting on the (hyper)edges of an underlying (hyper)graph structure. The latter encodes for the locality structure associated with finite-time quantum evolutions generated by physical, i.e., local, Hamiltonians. Our goal is to analyze physical properties of typical states in these ensembles; in particular here we focus on proxies of quantum entanglement as purity and $\ensuremath{\alpha}$-Renyi entropies. The problem is formulated in terms of matrix elements of superoperators which depend on the graph structure, choice of probability measure over the local unitaries, and circuit length. In the $\ensuremath{\alpha}=2$ case these superoperators act on a restricted multiqubit space generated by permutation operators associated to the subsets of vertices of the graph. For permutationally invariant interactions the dynamics can be further restricted to an exponentially smaller subspace. We consider different families of RQCs and study their typical entanglement properties for finite time as well as their asymptotic behavior. We find that area law holds in average and that the volume law is a typical property (that is, it holds in average and the fluctuations around the average are vanishing for the large system) of physical states. The area law arises when the evolution time is O(1)O(1)O(1) with respect to the size LLL of the system, while the volume law arises as is typical when the evolution time scales like O(L)O(L)O(L).
Random pure states of multi-partite quantum systems, associated with arbitrary graphs, are investigated. Each vertex of the graph represents a generic interaction between subsystems, described by a random unitary matrix distributed according to the Haar measure, while each edge of the graph represents a bipartite, maximally entangled state. For any splitting of the graph into two parts we consider the corresponding partition of the quantum system and compute the average entropy of entanglement. First, in the special case where the partition does not cross any vertex of the graph, we show that the area law is satisfied exactly. In the general case, we show that the entropy of entanglement obeys an area law on average, this time with a correction term that depends on the topologies of the graph and of the partition. The results obtained are applied to the problem of distribution of quantum entanglement in a quantum network with prescribed topology.
Quantum many-body systems display an extraordinary degree of complexity, yet many of their features are universal: they depend not on microscopic details, but on a few fundamental physical aspects such as symmetries. A central challenge is to distill these universal characteristics from model-specific ones. Random quantum states sampled from a uniform distribution, the Haar measure, provide a powerful framework for capturing this typicality. Here, we experimentally study the entanglement and symmetries of random many-body quantum states generated by evolving simple product states under ergodic Floquet models. We find excellent agreement with the predictions from the Haar-random state ensemble. First, we measure the Rényi-2 entanglement entropy as a function of the subsystem size, observing the Page curve. Second, we probe the subsystem symmetries using entanglement asymmetry. Finally, we measure the moments of partially transposed reduced density matrices obtained by tracing out part of the system in the generated ensembles, thereby revealing distinct entanglement phases. Our results offer an experimental perspective on the typical entanglement and symmetries of many-body quantum systems.
Motivated by studies of typical properties of quantum states in statistical mechanics, we introduce phase-random states, an ensemble of pure states with fixed amplitudes and uniformly distributed phases in a fixed basis. We first give a sufficient condition for canonical states to typically appear in subsystems of phase-random states, which reveals a trade-off relation between the initial state in the bounded energy subspace and the energy eigenstates that define that subspace. We then investigate the simulatability of phase-random states, which is directly related to that of time evolution in closed systems, by studying their entanglement properties. We find that, starting from a separable state, time evolutions under Hamiltonians composed of only separable eigenstates generate extremely high entanglement and are difficult to simulate with matrix-product states. We also show that random quantum circuits consisting of only two-qubit diagonal unitaries can generate an ensemble with the same average entanglement as phase-random states.