Exceptional topological entanglement in open quantum systems

Diplomarbeit von Marc Busse

Kohei Kawabata, Tokiro Numasawa, Shinsei Ryu

Recent years have seen remarkable development in open quantum systems effectively described by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. A unique feature of non-Hermitian topological systems is the skin effect, anomalous localization of an extensive number of eigenstates driven by nonreciprocal dissipation. Despite its significance for non-Hermitian topological phases, the relevance of the skin effect to quantum entanglement and critical phenomena has remained unclear. Here, we find that the skin effect induces a nonequilibrium quantum phase transition in the entanglement dynamics. We show that the skin effect gives rise to a macroscopic flow of particles and suppresses the entanglement propagation and thermalization, leading to the area law of the entanglement entropy in the nonequilibrium steady state. Moreover, we reveal an entanglement phase transition induced by the competition between the unitary dynamics and the skin effect even without disorder or interactions. This entanglement phase transition accompanies nonequilibrium quantum criticality characterized by a nonunitary conformal field theory whose effective central charge is extremely sensitive to the boundary conditions. We also demonstrate that it originates from an exceptional point of the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian and the concomitant scale invariance of the skin modes localized according to the power law. Furthermore, we show that the skin effect leads to the purification and the reduction of von Neumann entropy even in Markovian open quantum systems described by the Lindblad master equation. Our work opens a way to control the entanglement growth and establishes a fundamental understanding of phase transitions and critical phenomena in open quantum systems far from thermal equilibrium.

Sead Spuzic

Zan Tang, Tian Chen, Xing Tang +1 more

. However, it has always been a great challenge to complete such a task because of decoherence and disorder. Here, we propose theoretically and demonstrate experimentally an effective scheme to realize robust operation of quantum entanglement states by designing quadruple degeneracy exceptional points. By encircling the exceptional points on two overlapping Riemann energy surfaces, we have realized a chiral switch for entangled states with high fidelity. Owing to the topological protection conferred by the Riemann surface structure, this switching of chirality exhibits strong robustness against perturbations in the encircling path. Furthermore, we have experimentally validated such a scheme on a quantum walk platform. Our work opens up a new way for the application of non-Hermitian physics in the field of quantum information.

Pei‐Rong Han, Wen Ning, Xin-Jie Huang +7 more

Owing to the presence of exceptional points (EPs), non-Hermitian (NH) systems can display intriguing topological phenomena without Hermitian analogs. However, experimental characterizations of exceptional topological invariants have been restricted to second-order EPs (EP2s) in classical or semiclassical systems. We here propose an NH multi-mode system with higher-order EPs, each of which is underlain by a multifold-degenerate multipartite entangled eigenstate. We implement the NH model by controllably coupling a Josephson-junction-based electronic mode to two microwave resonators. We experimentally quantify the topological invariant for an EP3, by mapping out the complex eigenspectra of the tripartite system along a loop surrounding this EP3 in the parameter space. The nonclassicality of the realized topology is manifested by the observed quantum correlations in the corresponding eigenstates. Our results extend research of exceptional topology to fully quantum-mechanical models with multipartite entangled eigenstates. Exceptional topology associated with higher-order exceptional points has not been completely characterised in quantum systems. Here, the authors fill this gap performing full quantum state tomography in a system composed of a superconducting qubit coupled to two cavities, one lossless and one lossy, featuring third-order exceptional points.

Michael Mariën