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Fidelity: A quantum information-theoretic approach to problems in condensed matter physics and quantum chaos

N. Tobias Jacobson

Published Jan 1, 2015• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this dissertation, we address several problems in condensed matter physics, statistical mechanics, and quantum chaos from the perspective of the quantum information-theoretic notion of state distinguishability, as measured though evaluation of the appropriate fidelity measure. ❧ We find that the fidelity susceptibility, a measure for the response of the fidelity to infinitesimal changes of the Hamiltonian parameters, serves as a useful tool for studying the effects of disorder on quantum phase transitions. We study in detail the phase diagram of the well-known one-dimensional random quantum XY chain. Through an analysis of the fidelity susceptibility’s finite-size scaling and statistics for this model, we find that the fidelity approach reflects large variation between average and typical behavior, may detect the presence of Griffiths phases, and indicates the modifications to the phase diagram due to disorder. ❧ For this same model, though without disorder, we evaluate the dynamics following a sudden Hamiltonian quench using the Loschmidt echo, a form of the fidelity that compares the initial state with the time-evolved state. Through a central limit theorem-type argument we find that the long-time statistics of the Loschmidt echo takes one of two universal forms, even at finite temperature, depending on the system’s proximity to the quantum critical lines. ❧ Finally, for a canonical model exhibiting quantum chaos, the hydrogen atom in a uniform external magnetic field, we evaluate the operator fidelity susceptibility (OFS) between unitary operators generating the dynamics. We find that the part of the OFS which corresponds to the variation of the Hamiltonian eigenvectors serves to indicate the transition from the regular perturbative and n-mixing regimes to the quantum chaotic regime.

DOI
10.25549/usctheses-c127-640834

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In this dissertation, we address several problems in condensed matter physics, statistical mechanics, and quantum chaos from the perspective of the quantum information-theoretic notion of state distinguishability, as measured though evaluation of the appropriate fidelity measure. ❧ We find that the fidelity susceptibility, a measure for the response of the fidelity to infinitesimal changes of the Hamiltonian parameters, serves as a useful tool for studying the effects of disorder on quantum phase transitions. We study in detail the phase diagram of the well-known one-dimensional random quantum XY chain. Through an analysis of the fidelity susceptibility’s finite-size scaling and statistics for this model, we find that the fidelity approach reflects large variation between average and typical behavior, may detect the presence of Griffiths phases, and indicates the modifications to the phase diagram due to disorder. ❧ For this same model, though without disorder, we evaluate the dynamics following a sudden Hamiltonian quench using the Loschmidt echo, a form of the fidelity that compares the initial state with the time-evolved state. Through a central limit theorem-type argument we find that the long-time statistics of the Loschmidt echo takes one of two universal forms, even at finite temperature, depending on the system’s proximity to the quantum critical lines. ❧ Finally, for a canonical model exhibiting quantum chaos, the hydrogen atom in a uniform external magnetic field, we evaluate the operator fidelity susceptibility (OFS) between unitary operators generating the dynamics. We find that the part of the OFS which corresponds to the variation of the Hamiltonian eigenvectors serves to indicate the transition from the regular perturbative and n-mixing regimes to the quantum chaotic regime.
The operator fidelity is a measure of the information-theoretic distinguishability between perturbed and unperturbed evolutions. The response of this measure to the perturbation may be formulated in terms of the operator fidelity susceptibility (OFS), a quantity which has been used to investigate the parameter spaces of quantum systems in order to discriminate their regular and chaotic regimes. In this work we numerically study the OFS for a pair of nonlinearly coupled two-dimensional harmonic oscillators, a model which is equivalent to that of a hydrogen atom in a uniform external magnetic field. We show how the two terms of the OFS, being linked to the main properties that differentiate regular from chaotic behavior, allow for the detection of this model's transition between the two regimes. In addition, we find that the parameter interval where perturbation theory applies is delimited from above by a local minimum of one of the analyzed terms.
This thesis presents insights obtained on three questions in condensed matter physics via techniques in quantum information. ? The first topic deals with signatures of equilibration in a closed quantum system. Using the Loschmidt echo as a representative observable, that is derived from fidelity?a popular quantity in quantum information, and by studying it's long time statistics the role of quantum criticality in the equilibration dynamics of a closed system is analysed. While off?critical systems under a quantum quench are shown to equilibrate well, critical systems are shown to do so poorly signified by relatively large fluctuations of the echo around it?s long time average. ? The second topic deals with typicality of entanglement in the physical Hilbert space. Here, a general framework for studying statistical moments of physically relevant quantities in ensembles of quantum states generated by Local Random Quantum Circuits (LRQC) is outlined. These ensembles are constructed by finite?length random quantum circuits acting on the (hyper)edges of an underlying (hyper)graph structure. The latter are designed to encode for the locality structure associated with finite?time quantum evolutions generated by physical i.e. local Hamiltonians. Physical properties of typical states in these ensembles, in particular purity as a proxy of quantum entanglement is studied. 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. We consider different families of LRQCs and study their typical entanglement properties for finite?time as well as their asymptotic behavior. In particular, for a model of LRQC that resembles closely the Trotter scheme of discretizing quantum evolutions with local Hamiltonians, we find that the 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 typical when the evolution time scales like O(L). ? The final topic deals with the perturbative response of the set of Re?nyi entropies of a subsystem when the entire system is in a state displaying some quantum order. The characteristic behavior of the entropies is shown to be able to identify topologically non?trivial and trivial phases in the case of quantum double models. The implications of the response towards the possibility of simulating the adiabatic evolution within a phase using the protocol of Local Operations and Classical Communications are discussed.
The phase diagram of a quantum XYXYXY spin chain with Gaussian-distributed random anisotropies and transverse fields is investigated, with focus on the fidelity susceptibility, a recently introduced quantum information theoretical measure. Monitoring the finite-size scaling of the probability distribution of this quantity as well as its average and typical values, we detect a disorder-induced disappearance of criticality and the emergence of Griffiths phases in this model. It is found that the fidelity susceptibility is not self-averaging near the disorder-free quantum-critical lines. At the Ising critical point the fidelity susceptibility scales as a disorder-strength independent stretched exponential of the system size, in contrast with the quadratic scaling at the corresponding point in the disorder-free XYXYXY chain. Along the line where the average anisotropy vanishes the fidelity susceptibility appears to scale extensively, whereas in the disorder-free case this point is quantum critical with quadratic finite-size scaling.
Abstract We present a unified formalism which identifies chaos in both quantum and classical systems in an equivalent manner by means of adiabatic transformations . The complexity of adiabatic transformations which preserve classical time-averaged trajectories (quantum eigenstates) in response to Hamiltonian deformations serves as a measure of chaos. This complexity is quantified by the (properly regularized) fidelity susceptibility or, more generally, by the geometric tensor. Physically this measure quantifies (i) long time instabilities of physical observables due to small changes in the Hamiltonian of the system and (ii) irregularity of physical observables contained in low frequency noise. Our exposition clearly showcases the common structures underlying quantum and classical chaos and allows us to distinguish integrable, chaotic but non-thermalizing, and ergodic/mixing regimes. We apply the fidelity susceptibility to a model of two coupled spins and demonstrate that it successfully predicts the universal onset of chaos, both for finite spin S and in the classical limit S → ∞ . Interestingly, we find that finite S effects are anomalously large close to integrability.
We review the definition and properties of fidelity as a measure of distinguishability of quantum states, presenting some of its geometric aspects. We apply then fidelity to the study of phase transitions in condensed matter systems, both at zero and finite temperatures. It does not rely on any already known order parameter, being useful not only in the usual Landau type phase transitions but also in phase transitions displaying topological order. The so called fidelity susceptibility and its relation to the usual thermodynamic susceptibilities and response functions are discussed. Finally, we consider the fidelity between different reduced density matrices for a subsystem of a larger system.
The study of non-equilibrium behaviors of quantum matter is one of the research directions at the frontiers of condensed matter physics and, in general, of theoretical and experimental physics. Understanding the mechanisms which prevent many quantum particles from reaching thermal equilibrium can ultimately shed light on the foundations of statistical physics and provide insight into the anomalous long-time collective behaviors observed in experiments. In this thesis, we present new theoretical developments in this direction. In the first part of the thesis we discuss the non-equilibrium dynamics of the two-dimensional quantum Ising model, the prototypical model of magnetism. In particular, we investigate the dynamics of interfaces separating different spin domains. In some regimes, we can provide an exact description of their unitary time evolution, but we also discuss the robustness of our predictions away from the exactly-solvable limit. Moreover, we address the same problem in the presence of disorder and provide a hydrodynamic interpretation of our findings. In the second part of the thesis, we investigate the localization properties of disordered quantum systems. In particular, we develop a renormalization-group picture of the Anderson localization transition in generic geometries. This provides a new framework to understand the phase diagram of such systems and their critical behavior beyond the usual finite-size scaling analysis. We also provide further insights on this topic both by studying resonances and their connection with observables and by employing unsupervised non-parametric learning techniques to probe disordered systems in an experimentally accessible form. The results presented in this thesis constitute a step forward in understanding the non-equilibrium phases and regimes of quantum matter and they pave the way to interesting future developments.