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arXiv:cond-mat/0606140 · Physical Review B

Relation between decoherence and spontaneous symmetry breaking in many-particle qubits

Jasper van Wezel, Jan Zaanen, Jeroen van den Brink

Published Sep 27, 2006• 38 citations
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Abstract

We have recently shown that there is a limit to quantum coherence in many-particle spin qubits due to spontaneous symmetry breaking. These results were derived for the Lieb-Mattis spin model. Here we will show that the underlying mechanism of decoherence in systems with spontaneous symmetry breaking is in fact more general. We present here a generic route to finding the decoherence time associated with spontaneous symmetry breaking in many-particle qubits, and subsequently we apply this approach to two model systems, indicating how the continuous symmetries in these models are spontaneously broken and discussing the relation of this symmetry breaking to the thin spectrum. We then present in detail the calculations that lead to the limit to quantum coherence, which is due to energy shifts in the thin spectrum.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.74.094430

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We have recently shown that there is a limit to quantum coherence in many-particle spin qubits due to spontaneous symmetry breaking. These results were derived for the Lieb-Mattis spin model. Here we will show that the underlying mechanism of decoherence in systems with spontaneous symmetry breaking is in fact more general. We present here a generic route to finding the decoherence time associated with spontaneous symmetry breaking in many-particle qubits, and subsequently we apply this approach to two model systems, indicating how the continuous symmetries in these models are spontaneously broken and discussing the relation of this symmetry breaking to the thin spectrum. We then present in detail the calculations that lead to the limit to quantum coherence, which is due to energy shifts in the thin spectrum.
We investigate the influence of spontaneous symmetry breaking on the decoherence of a many-particle quantum system. This decoherence process is analyzed in an exactly solvable model system that is known to be representative of symmetry broken macroscopic systems in equilibrium. It is shown that spontaneous symmetry breaking imposes a fundamental limit to the time that a system can stay quantum coherent. This universal time scale is t(spon) approximately = 2piNH/(kBT), given in terms of the number of microscopic degrees of freedom N, temperature T, and the constants of Planck (h) and Boltzmann (kB).
We show that superconductors have a thin spectrum associated with spontaneous symmetry breaking similar to that of antiferromagnets, while still being in full agreement with Elitzur's theorem, which forbids the spontaneous breaking of local (gauge) symmetries. This thin spectrum in the superconductors consists of in-gap states that are associated with the spontaneous breaking of a global phase symmetry. In qubits based on mesoscopic superconducting devices, the presence of the thin spectrum implies a maximum coherence time which is proportional to the number of Cooper pairs in the device. Here we present the detailed calculations leading up to these results and discuss the relation between spontaneous symmetry breaking in superconductors and the Meissner effect, the Anderson-Higgs mechanism, and the Josephson effect. Whereas for the Meissner effect a symmetry breaking of the phase of the superconductor is not required, it is essential for the Josephson effect.
We present a mathematically simple procedure to explain spontaneous symmetry breaking in quantum systems. The procedure is applicable to a wide range of models and can be easily used to explain the existence of a symmetry broken state in crystals, antiferromagnets, and even superconductors. It has the advantage that it automatically brings to the fore the main players in spontaneous symmetry breaking: the symmetry-breaking field, the thermodynamic limit, and the global excitations of a “thin” spectrum.
The description of spontaneous symmetry breaking that underlies the connection between classically ordered objects in the thermodynamic limit and their individual quantum-mechanical building blocks is one of the cornerstones of modern condensed-matter theory and has found applications in many different areas of physics. The theory of spontaneous symmetry breaking, however, is inherently an equilibrium theory, which does not address the dynamics of quantum systems in the thermodynamic limit. Here, we will use the example of a particular antiferromagnetic model system to show that the presence of a so-called thin spectrum of collective excitations with vanishing energy---one of the well-known characteristic properties shared by all symmetry-breaking objects---can allow these objects to also spontaneously break time-translation symmetry in the thermodynamic limit. As a result, that limit is found to be able, not only to reduce quantum-mechanical equilibrium averages to their classical counterparts, but also to turn individual-state quantum dynamics into classical physics. In the process, we find that the dynamical description of spontaneous symmetry breaking can also be used to shed some light on the possible origins of Born's rule. We conclude by describing an experiment on a condensate of exciton polaritons which could potentially be used to experimentally test the proposed mechanism.
In mixed states of quantum systems, symmetries come in two types: strong and weak. Furthermore, it has been argued that in quantum many-body systems, strong symmetries can be "spontaneously broken" down to weak symmetries. An issue is that as previously formulated, such "strong-to-weak symmetry breaking" appears to be a fairly non-local effect. In this paper, we show how to understand and diagnose strong symmetries and strong-to-weak symmetry breaking in an explicitly local way. Our main technical tool is a rigorous definition of strong symmetry in the limit of infinite volume, which generalizes the conventional finite-volume definitions, and for which we give several equivalent formulations, including one involving the concept of "local charge coherence". Finally, we introduce von Neumann systems, which in infinite-volume symmetries are intermediate between strong and weak symmetries. We derive a Lieb-Schultz-Mattis type anomaly constraint for von Neumann symmetries (and therefore, in particular, strong symmetries) in quantum spin chains.
Abstract Spontaneous symmetry breaking is related to the appearance of emergent phenomena, while a non-vanishing order parameter has been viewed as the sign of turning into such symmetry-breaking phase. We study the spontaneous symmetry breaking in the conventional superconductor and Bose–Einstein condensation with a continuous measure of symmetry by showing that both the many-body systems can be mapped into the many spin model. We also formulate the underlying relation between the spontaneous symmetry breaking and the order parameter quantitatively. The degree of symmetry stays unity in the absence of the two emergent phenomena, while decreases exponentially at the appearance of the order parameter which indicates the inextricable relation between the spontaneous symmetry and the order parameter.