We show by a counting argument that even though translation symmetry admits symmetric short-range entangled (SRE) eigenstates, there are not enough such SRE eigenstates to span the zero momentum sector. This means that the fixed point strong-to-weak spontaneous symmetry breaking state of translation symmetry is long-range entangled: it cannot be written as a mixture of SRE states. This is a subtle form of long-range entanglement in mixed states that cannot be detected by long-range connected correlation functions.
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5+4 pages, 3 figures, v3: fixed typographical mistakes and updated a figure
We show by a counting argument that even though translation symmetry admits symmetric short-range entangled (SRE) eigenstates, there are not enough such SRE eigenstates to span the zero momentum sector. This means that the fixed point strong-to-weak spontaneous symmetry breaking state of translation symmetry is long-range entangled: it cannot be written as a mixture of SRE states. This is a subtle form of long-range entanglement in mixed states that cannot be detected by long-range connected correlation functions.
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.
A result by Gioia and Wang [Phys Rev X 12, 031007 (2022)] showed that translationally symmetric states having nonzero momentum are necessarily long range entangled (LRE). Here, we consider the question: can a notion of momentum for non-translation symmetric states directly encode the nature of their entanglement, as it does for translation symmetric states? We show the answer is affirmative for 1D systems, while higher dimensional extensions and topologically ordered systems require further work. While Gioia and Wang's result applies to states connected via finite depth quantum circuits to a translation symmetric state, it is often impractical to find such a circuit to determine the nature of the entanglement of states that break translation symmetry. Here, instead of translation eigenstates, we focus on the many-body momentum distribution and the expectation value of the translation operator in many-body states of systems having broken translation symmetry. We show that in the continuum limit the magnitude of the expectation value of the translation operator ∣<T>∣ necessarily goes to 1 for delocalized states, a proxy for LRE states in 1D systems. This result can be seen as a momentum-space version of Resta's formula for the localization length. We investigate how accurate our results are in different lattice models with and without well-defined continuum limits. To that end, we introduce two models: a deterministic version of the random dimer model, illustrating the role of the thermodynamic and continuum limits for our result at a lattice level, and a simplified version of the Aubry-Andre model, with commensurate hopping for both momentum and position space. Finally, we use the random dimer model as a test case for the accuracy of ∣<T>∣ as a localization (and thus entanglement) probe for 1D periodic lattice models without a well-defined continuum limit.
Symmetry in mixed quantum states can manifest in two distinct forms: , where each individual pure state in the quantum ensemble is symmetric with the same charge, and , which applies only to the entire ensemble. This paper explores a novel type of spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) where a strong symmetry is broken to a weak one. While the SSB of a weak symmetry is measured by the long-ranged two-point correlation function, the strong-to-weak SSB (SWSSB) is measured by the . We prove that SWSSB is a universal property of mixed-state quantum phases, in the sense that the phenomenon of SWSSB is robust against symmetric low-depth local quantum channels. We also show that the symmetry breaking is “spontaneous” in the sense that the effect of a local symmetry-breaking measurement cannot be recovered locally. We argue that a thermal state at a nonzero temperature in the canonical ensemble (with fixed symmetry charge) should have spontaneously broken strong symmetry. Additionally, we study nonthermal scenarios where decoherence induces SWSSB, leading to phase transitions described by classical statistical models with bond randomness. In particular, the SWSSB transition of a decohered Ising model can be viewed as the “ungauged” version of the celebrated toric-code decodability transition. We confirm that, in the decohered Ising model, the SWSSB transition defined by the fidelity correlator is the only physical transition in terms of channel recoverability. We also comment on other (inequivalent) definitions of SWSSB, through correlation functions with higher Rényi indices.
Quantum entanglement measures of many-body states have been increasingly useful to characterize phases of matter. Here, we explore a surprising connection between mixed-state entanglement and ’t Hooft anomaly. More specifically, we consider lattice systems in d space dimensions with anomalous symmetry G where the anomaly is characterized by an invariant in the group cohomology H d + 2 [ G , U ( 1 ) ] . We show that any mixed state ρ that is strongly symmetric under G , in the sense that G ρ ∝ ρ is necessarily ( d + 2 )-nonseparable, i.e., is not the mixture of tensor products of d + 2 states in the Hilbert space. Furthermore, such states cannot be prepared from any ( d + 2 )-separable states using finite-depth local quantum channels, so the nonseparability is long-ranged in nature. We provide proof of these results in d ≤ 1 and plausibility arguments in d > 1 . The anomaly-nonseparability connection, thus, allows us to generate simple examples of mixed states with nontrivial long-ranged multipartite entanglement. In particular, in d = 1 we find an example of quantum phase, in the sense that states in this phase cannot be two-way connected to any pure state through finite-depth local quantum channels. We also analyze a mixed anomaly involving both strong and weak symmetries, including systems constrained by the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis type of anomaly. We find that, while strong-weak mixed anomaly, in general, does not constrain quantum entanglement, it does constrain long-range correlations of mixed states in nontrivial ways. Namely, such states are not symmetrically invertible and not gapped Markovian, generalizing familiar properties of anomalous pure states.
The preparation of long-range entangled (LRE) states via quantum measurements is a promising strategy, yet its stability against realistic, non-commuting measurement noise remains a critical open question. Here, we systematically investigate the rich phase structure emerging from a minimal model of competing, non-commuting weak measurements: nearest-neighbor Ising (ZiZj) and single-qubit transverse (Xi) operators. We analyze three experimentally relevant scenarios based on which measurement outcomes are read out: complete readout, no readout, and partial readout. Using a replica mean-field theory for higher dimensions, complemented by numerical simulations in one dimension, we derive the complete finite-time and stationary phase diagrams. Our analysis reveals a striking dependence on the readout protocol. Complete readout yields a direct transition between a short-range entangled (SRE) phase and a pure LRE phase. No readout (pure decoherence) precludes entanglement but exhibits a strong-to-weak spontaneous symmetry breaking (SWSSB) transition into a classically ordered mixed state. Most intriguingly, partial readout interpolates between these limits, featuring a mixed-state phase transition where the system can become trapped in the SWSSB phase or, for weaker non-commutativity, undergo successive symmetry breaking to reach a mixed LRE phase. A novel technical contribution is the use of a channel-fidelity-based partition function that allows us to simultaneously characterize both entanglement and SWSSB order, revealing a deep interplay between them in the replica limit. These results provide a cohesive picture for understanding measurement phase transitions, SWSSB, and mixed-state phase transitions, offering crucial insights for designing robust state preparation protocols on noisy quantum devices.
We show that a quantum state in a lattice spin (boson) system must be long-range entangled if it has nonzero lattice momentum, i.e., if it is an eigenstate of the translation symmetry with eigenvalue e iP ≠ 1. Equivalently, any state that can be connected with a nonzero momentum state through a finite-depth local unitary transformation must also be long-range entangled.The statement can also be generalized to fermion systems.Some nontrivial consequences follow immediately from our theorem: (i) Several different types of Lieb-Schultz-Mattis-Oshikawa-Hastings theorems, including a previously unknown version involving only a discrete Z n symmetry, can be derived in a simple manner from our result; (ii) a gapped topological order (in space dimension d > 1) must weakly break translation symmetry if one of its ground states on torus has nontrivial momentum-this generalizes the familiar physics of Tao-Thouless; (iii) our result provides further evidence of the "smoothness" assumption widely used in the classification of crystalline symmetryprotected topological phases.