Robust spin squeezing from the tower of states of U(1)-symmetric spin Hamiltonians

Abstract

Spin squeezing - a central resource for quantum metrology - can be generated via the non-linear, entangling evolution of an initially factorized spin state. Here we show that robust (i.e. persistent) squeezing dynamics is generated by a very large class of $S=1/2$ spin Hamiltonians with axial symmetry, in relationship with the existence of a peculiar structure of the low-lying Hamiltonian eigenstates - the so-called Anderson's tower of states. Such states are fundamentally related to the appearance of spontaneous symmetry breaking in quantum systems; and, for models with sufficiently high connectivity, they are parametrically close to the eigenstates of a planar rotor (Dicke states), in that they feature an anomalously large value of the total angular momentum. Our central insight is that, starting from a coherent spin state, a generic $U(1)$-symmetric Hamiltonian featuring the Anderson's tower of states generates the same squeezing evolution at short times as the one governed by the paradigmatic one-axis-twisting (or planar-rotor) model of squeezing dynamics. The full squeezing evolution of the planar-rotor model is seemingly reproduced for interactions decaying with distance $r$ as $r^{-\alpha}$ when $\alpha < 5d/3$ in $d$ dimensions. Our results connect quantum simulation with quantum metrology by unveiling the squeezing power of a large variety of Hamiltonian dynamics that are currently implemented by different quantum simulation platforms.