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Results in Physics

Identifying excited-state quantum phase transition in a spinor Bose–Einstein condensate with out-of-time-order correlators

Junjie Zhao, Xing-Dong Zhao, Qi Wang, Jingxue Liu, Yingying Zhang, Lu Qin, Jieli Qin, Renfei Zheng, Lu Zhou

Published Mar 8, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Out-of-Time-Order Correlator (OTOC) provides a way of quantifying information scrambling in quantum many-body systems and receives increasing attention from different fields. We extend the application of the OTOC to probe the excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPT) in spinor Bose–Einstein condensate in an external magnetic field. Using the quantum approach, mean-field theory, and numerical simulations, we have obtained the phase transition points and dynamical properties around them, and have demonstrated that these features can be detected by the OTOC. Our further investigations reveal that the detection efficiency is guaranteed under different magnetization conditions. Our results provide theoretical suggestions for using the OTOCs for experimentally accessing ESQPT in spinor quantum gases and other quantum many-body systems.

DOI
10.1016/j.rinp.2025.108181

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Out-of-Time-Order Correlator (OTOC) provides a way of quantifying information scrambling in quantum many-body systems and receives increasing attention from different fields. We extend the application of the OTOC to probe the excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPT) in spinor Bose–Einstein condensate in an external magnetic field. Using the quantum approach, mean-field theory, and numerical simulations, we have obtained the phase transition points and dynamical properties around them, and have demonstrated that these features can be detected by the OTOC. Our further investigations reveal that the detection efficiency is guaranteed under different magnetization conditions. Our results provide theoretical suggestions for using the OTOCs for experimentally accessing ESQPT in spinor quantum gases and other quantum many-body systems.
Out-of-time-order correlators (OTOCs) play an increasingly important role in different fields of physics and in particular they provide a way of quantifying information scrambling in quantum many-body systems. We verify that an OTOC can be used to probe an excited-state quantum phase transition (ESQPT) in a quantum many-body system. We examine the dynamical properties of an OTOC in the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model, which undergoes an ESQPT, using the exact diagonalization method. We show that the long-time evolution of the proposed OTOC is remarkably different in the different phases of the ESQPT. In consequence, we put the long-time averaged value of the OTOC forward as a possible ESQPT order parameter. Our results highlight the connections between OTOCs and ESQPTs, opening the possibility of using OTOCs for accessing experimentally ESQPTs in quantum many-body systems.
The out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOC), a fundamental concept for quantifying quantum information scrambling, has recently been suggested to be an order parameter to dynamically detect both equilibrium quantum phase transitions (EQPTs) and dynamical quantum phase transitions (DQPTs). Here we report the first experimental observation of EQPTs and DQPTs in a quantum spin chain via quench dynamics of OTOC on a nuclear magnetic resonance quantum simulator. We observe that the quench dynamics of the OTOC can unambiguously detect the DQPTs and the equilibrium critical point, while conventional order parameters such as the longitudinal magnetization can not. Moreover, we investigate the two-body correlations throughout the quench dynamics, and find that OTOC can extract the equilibrium critical point with higher accuracy and is more robust to decoherence than that of two-body correlation. Our experiment paves a way for experimentally investigating DQPTs through OTOCs and for studying the EQPTs through the nonequilibrium quantum quench dynamics with quantum simulators.
Identifying dynamical signatures of excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) in experimentally realizable quantum many-body systems is helpful for understanding the dynamical effects of ESQPTs. In such systems, the highly controllable spinor Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) offer an exceptional platform to study ESQPTs. In this work, we investigate the dynamical characteristics of the ESQPT in spin-1 BEC by means of the Loschmidt echo spectrum. The Loschmidt echo spectrum is an extension of the well-known Loschmidt echo and defined as the overlaps between the evolved state and the excited states of the initial Hamiltonian. We show that both the time-evolved and long-time-averaged Loschmidt echo spectrum undergo a remarkable change as the system passes through the critical point of the ESQPT. Moreover, the particular behavior exhibited by the Loschmidt echo spectrum at the critical point stands as a dynamical detector for probing the ESQPT. We further demonstrate how to capture the features of the ESQPT by using the energy distribution associated with the Loschmidt echo spectrum for time-evolved and long-time-averaged cases, respectively. Our findings contribute to a further verification of the usefulness of the Loschmidt echo spectrum for witnessing various quantum phase transitions in many-body systems and provide a different way to experimentally examine the dynamical consequences of ESQPTs.
Entanglement lies at the core of emergent quantum technologies such as quantum-enhanced metrology, quantum communication and cryptography, and quantum simulation and computing. Spinor Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) offer a promising platform for the generation and application of entangled states. For example, a spin-1 BEC has served for the proof-of-principle demonstration of a quantum-enhanced atomic clock. Ferromagnetic spin-1 BECs with zero magnetization exhibit three ground-state quantum phases with different entanglement properties. The control parameter can be tuned by a magnetic field or by microwave dressing. As already experimentally demonstrated, an entangled ground state can be reached from a well accessible, non-entangled one by driving the control parameter across quantum phase transitions (QPTs). We investigate which of the entangled ground states afford quantum-enhanced interferometry. The interferometric usefulness is quantified by the quantum Fisher information (QFI), which we analyze throughout all ground-state phases. A large QFI at about half the Heisenberg limit, and thus far above the standard quantum limit, is attained by the well-known Twin-Fock state and by the central broken-axisymmetry (CBA) state. We detail how the CBA state can be used as a probe for quantum-enhanced interferometry. Furthermore, we observe that the large QFI of the CBA state can be traced back to enclosed macroscopic superposition states (MSSs). Measuring the atom number in one out of three modes generates, with high probability and heralded by the measurement outcome, a MSS similar to a NOON state. Our proposal promises NOON-like MSSs of unprecedentedly many atoms. Both proposed applications of the adiabatically prepared CBA state depend only on existent technology. Our numerical results show that they tolerate a reasonably swift quasiadiabatic passage in the presence of atom loss as well as uncertainties of atom counting. Excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) extend the concept of QPTs beyond the ground state. While they have been extensively investigated theoretically, there are only few experimental results. From the perspective of quantum-state engineering, it is furthermore surprising how rarely order parameters of ESQPTs are discussed in the literature. Mean-field models for spinor BECs imply ESQPTs, to which some experimental observations on the mean-field dynamics can be attributed. However, so far, neither theoretical nor experimental studies have specifically addressed ESQPTs in spinor BECs. We extend the ground-state phase diagram of ferromagnetic spin-1 BECs with zero magnetization across the spectrum. There are three excited-state phases, corresponding to one ground-state phase each. The ESQPTs are signaled by a diverging density of states. The mean-field phase-space trajectories can be characterized by a winding number that is in one-to-one correspondence to the excited-state phases. We derive a closely related order parameter encoded in the dynamics of coherent states and discuss how this order parameter can be interferometrically measured in current experiments. Remarkably, the mean-field model governing the ESQPTs in spin-1 BECs with zero magnetization is encountered also, e. g., in molecular and nuclear physics. Because of the superior experimental control, spinor BECs can be considered as simulators of the ESQPTs in those systems. Our results contribute to quantum-state engineering and quantum-enhanced interferometry in spinor BECs and to the characterization of excited-state quantum phases. The latter may, in turn, lead on to applications in quantum-state engineering.
Excited-state quantum phase transitions extend the notion of quantum phase transitions beyond the ground state. They are characterized by closing energy gaps amid the spectrum. Identifying order parameters for excited-state quantum phase transitions poses, however, a major challenge. We introduce a topological order parameter that distinguishes excited-state phases in a large class of mean-field models and can be accessed by interferometry in current experiments with spinor Bose-Einstein condensates. Our work opens a way for the experimental characterization of excited-state quantum phases in atomic many-body systems.
Multifractality of quantum states plays an important role for understanding numerous complex phenomena observed in different branches of physics. The multifractal properties of the eigenstates allow for characterising various phase transitions. In this work, we perform a thorough analysis of the impacts of an excited-state quantum phase transition (ESQPT) on the fractal behavior of both static and dynamical wave functions in a ferromagentic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate. By studying the features of the fractal dimensions, we show how the multifractality of eigenstates and time evolved states are affected by the presence of ESQPT. Specifically, the underlying ESQPT leads to a strong localization effect, which in turn enables us to use it as an indicator of ESQPT. We verify the ability of the fractal dimensions to probe the occurrence of ESQPT through a detailed scaling analysis. We also discuss how the ESQPT manifests itself in the fractal dimensions of the long-time averaged state. Our findings further confirm that the multifractal analysis is a powerful tool for studying of phase transitions in quantum many-body systems and also hint an potential application of ESQPTs in the burgeoning field of state preparation engineering.