Boundary Entanglement Research Articles

Plaquette models, cellular automata, and measurement-induced criticality

Abstract We present a class of two-dimensional randomized plaquette models, where the multi-spin interaction term, referred to as the plaquette term, is replaced by a single-site spin term with a probability of $1-p$. By varying $p$, we observe a ground state phase transition, or equivalently, a phase transition of the symmetry operator. We find that as we vary $p$, the symmetry operator changes from being extensive to being localized in space. These models can be equivalently understood as 1+1D randomized cellular automaton dynamics, allowing the 2D transition to be interpreted as a 1+1D dynamical absorbing phase transition. In this paper, our primary focus is on the plaquette term with three or five-body interactions, where we explore the universality classes of the transitions. Specifically, for the model with five-body interaction, we demonstrate that it belongs to the same universality class as the measurement-induced entanglement phase transition observed in 1+1D Clifford dynamics, as well as the boundary entanglement transition of the 2D cluster state induced by random bulk Pauli measurements. This work establishes a connection between transitions in classical spin models, cellular automata, and hybrid random circuits.


Quantifying unitary flow efficiency and entanglement for many-body localization

We probe the bulk geometry of the Wegner Wilson Flow (WWF) in the context of many-body localization by addressing efficiency and bulk entanglement growth measures through approximating upper bounds on the boundary entanglement entropy. We connect these upper bounds to the Fubini-Study metric and clarify how a central quantity, the information fluctuation complexity, distinguishes bulk unitary rotation from entanglement production. We also give a short new proof of the small incremental entangling theorem in the absence of ancillas, achieving a dimensionindependent, universal factor of $c=2$.

The connected wedge theorem and its consequences

In the AdS/CFT correspondence, bulk causal structure has consequences for boundary entanglement. In quantum information science, causal structures can be replaced by distributed entanglement for the purposes of information processing. In this work, we deepen the understanding of both of these statements, and their relationship, with a number of new results. Centrally, we present and prove a new theorem, the n-to-n connected wedge theorem, which considers n input and n output locations at the boundary of an asymptotically AdS2+1 spacetime described by AdS/CFT. When a sufficiently strong set of causal connections exists among these points in the bulk, a set of n associated regions in the boundary will have extensive-in-N mutual information across any bipartition of the regions. The proof holds in three bulk dimensions for classical spacetimes satisfying the null curvature condition and for semiclassical spacetimes satisfying standard conjectures. The n-to-n connected wedge theorem gives a precise example of how causal connections in a bulk state can emerge from large-N entanglement features of its boundary dual. It also has consequences for quantum information theory: it reveals one pattern of entanglement which is sufficient for information processing in a particular class of causal networks. We argue this pattern is also necessary, and give an AdS/CFT inspired protocol for information processing in this setting.Our theorem generalizes the 2-to-2 connected wedge theorem proven in [3]. We also correct some errors in the proof presented there, in particular a false claim that existing proof techniques work above three bulk dimensions.

Crossing Versus Locking: Bit Threads and Continuum Multiflows

Bit threads are curves in holographic spacetimes that manifest boundary entanglement, and are represented mathematically by continuum analogues of network flows or multiflows. Subject to a density bound, the maximum number of threads connecting a boundary region to its complement computes the Ryu–Takayanagi entropy. When considering several regions at the same time, for example in proving entropy inequalities, there are various inequivalent density bounds that can be imposed. We investigate for which choices of bound a given set of boundary regions can be “locked”, in other words can have their entropies computed by a single thread configuration. We show that under the most stringent bound, which requires the threads to be locally parallel, non-crossing regions can in general be locked, but crossing regions cannot, where two regions are said to cross if they partially overlap and do not cover the entire boundary. We also show that, under a certain less stringent density bound, a crossing pair can be locked, and conjecture that any set of regions not containing a pairwise crossing triple can be locked, analogously to the situation for networks.

Bulk area law for boundary entanglement in spin network states: Entropy corrections and horizon-like regions from volume correlations

For quantum gravity states associated to open spin network graphs, we study how the entanglement entropy of the boundary degrees of freedom (spins on open edges) is affected by the bulk data, specifically by its combinatorial structure and by the quantum correlations among intertwiner degrees of freedom. For a specific assignment of bulk edge spins and slightly entangled intertwiners, we recover the Ryu-Takayanagi formula (with a properly (discrete) geometric notion of area, thanks to the underlying quantum gravity formalism) and its corrections due to the entanglement entropy of the bulk state. We also show that the presence of a region with highly entangled intertwiners deforms the minimal-area surface, which is then prevented from entering that region when the entanglement entropy of the latter exceeds a certain bound. This entanglement-based mechanism leads thus to the formation of a black hole-like region in the bulk.

On tensor network representations of the (3+1)d toric code

We define two dual tensor network representations of the (3+1)d toric code ground state subspace. These two representations, which are obtained by initially imposing either family of stabilizer constraints, are characterized by different virtual symmetries generated by string-like and membrane-like operators, respectively. We discuss the topological properties of the model from the point of view of these virtual symmetries, emphasizing the differences between both representations. In particular, we argue that, depending on the representation, the phase diagram of boundary entanglement degrees of freedom is naturally associated with that of a (2+1)d Hamiltonian displaying either a global or a gaugeZ2-symmetry.

Holographic quantum tasks with input and output regions

Quantum tasks are quantum computations with inputs and outputs occurring at specified spacetime locations. Considering such tasks in the context of AdS/CFT has led to novel constraints relating bulk geometry and boundary entanglement. In this article we consider tasks where inputs and outputs are encoded into extended spacetime regions, rather than the points previously considered. We show that this leads to stronger constraints than have been derived in the point based setting. In particular we improve the connected wedge theorem, appearing earlier in arXiv:1912.05649, by finding a larger bulk region whose existence implies large boundary correlation. As well, we show how considering extended input and output regions leads to non-trivial statements in Poincaré-AdS2+1, a setting where the point-based connected wedge theorem is always trivial.

Nearly invariant boundary entanglement in optomechanical systems* *Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11574398, 11904402, 12074433, and 12004430) and the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFA0301903).

In order to understand our previous numerical finding that steady-state entanglement along the instability boundary remains unchanged in a three-mode optomechanical system [Phys. Rev. A 101 023838 (2020)], we investigate in detail the boundary entanglement in a simpler two-mode optomechanical system. Studies show that both the mechanism to generate entanglement and the parameter dependence of boundary entanglement are quite similar in these two models. Therefore, the two-mode system has captured the main features in the three-mode system. With the help of analytical calculations and discussing in a much bigger parameter interval, we find that the unchanging behavior previously discovered is actually an extremely slow changing behavior of the boundary entanglement function, and most importantly, this nearly invariant boundary entanglement is a general phenomenon via parametric down conversion process in the weak dissipation regime. This is by itself interesting as threshold quantum signatures in optomechanical phonon lasers, or may have potential value in related applications based on boundary quantum properties.

Building bulk geometry from the tensor Radon transform

Using the tensor Radon transform and related numerical methods, we study how bulk geometries can be explicitly reconstructed from boundary entanglement entropies in the specific case of AdS3/CFT2. We find that, given the boundary entanglement entropies of a 2d CFT, this framework provides a quantitative measure that detects whether the bulk dual is geometric in the perturbative (near AdS) limit. In the case where a well-defined bulk geometry exists, we explicitly reconstruct the unique bulk metric tensor once a gauge choice is made. We then examine the emergent bulk geometries for static and dynamical scenarios in holography and in many-body systems. Apart from the physics results, our work demonstrates that numerical methods are feasible and effective in the study of bulk reconstruction in AdS/CFT.

Numerical studies on the boundary entanglement in an optomechanical phonon laser system

In our previous work (Meng et al 2020 Phys. Rev. A 101 023838), we discover the phenomenon that the quantum entanglement on the driving threshold line remains a constant in a three-mode optomechanical phonon laser system. In this paper, to find the conditions under which the constant boundary entanglement shows up, we explicitly study how this boundary entanglement depends on various parameters through numerical integrations. The results show that the necessary and sufficient condition is a resonant frequency match between the optical frequency difference and the mechanical vibrational frequency, and this constant value is proportional to the multiplication of the square of the optomechanical coupling strength and the resonant driving threshold power.

Quantum correction of the Wilson line and entanglement entropy in the pure AdS3 Einstein gravity theory

We calculate the expectation value of the Wilson line in the pure AdS3 Einstein gravity theory and also the entanglement entropy in the boundary theory. Our one-loop calculation of entanglement entropy shows a shift of the central charge 26. Finally, we show that the Wilson line provides the equivalent description to the boundary entanglement entropy. This equivalence leads to a concrete example of the building of “minimum surface=entanglement entropy”.

Berry curvature, horocycles, and scattering states in AdS3/CFT2

By studying the space of geodesics in $ADS_3/CFT_2$ and quantizing the geodesic motion, we relate scattering data to boundary entanglement of the CFT vacuum. The basic idea is to use a family of plane waves parametrized by coordinates of the space of geodesics i.e. kinematic space. This idea enables a simple calculation of the Berry curvature living on kinematic space. As a result we recover the Crofton form with a coefficient depending on the scattering energy. In arriving at these results the space of horocycles is used. We show that this new space used in concert with kinematic space incorporates naturally the gauge degrees of freedom responsible for an analogue of Berry's Phase. Horocycles also give a new geometric look to the strong subadditivity relation in terms of lambda lengths giving rise to shear coordinates of geodesic quadrangles. A generalization for geodesic polygons then reveals an interesting connection with $A_{n}$ cluster algebras. Here the cluster variables are the lambda lengths related to the regularized entropies of the boundary via the Ryu-Takayanagi relation. An elaboration of this idea indicates that cluster algebras might provide a natural algebraic means for encoding the gauge invariant entanglement patterns of certain boundary entangled states in the geometry of bulk geodesics. Finally using the language of integral geometry we show how certain propagators connected to the bulk, boundary and kinematic spaces are related to data of elementary scattering problems. We also present some hints how these ideas might be generalized for more general holographic scenarios.

Quantum tasks in holography

We consider an operational restatement of the holographic principle, which we call the principle of asymptotic quantum tasks. Asymptotic quantum tasks are quantum information processing tasks with inputs given and outputs required on points at the boundary of a spacetime. The principle of asymptotic quantum tasks states that tasks which are possible using the bulk dynamics should coincide with tasks that are possible using the boundary. We extract consequences of this principle for holography in the con- text of asymptotically AdS spacetimes. Among other results we find a novel connection between bulk causal structure and the phase transition in the boundary mutual infor- mation. Further, we note a connection between holography and quantum cryptography, where the problem of completing asymptotic quantum tasks has been studied earlier. We study the cryptographic and AdS/CFT approaches to completing asymptotic quantum tasks and consider the efficiency with which they replace bulk classical geometry with boundary entanglement.

Bulk metric reconstruction from boundary entanglement

Most of the literature in the \emph{bulk reconstruction program} in holography focuses on recovering local bulk operators propagating on a quasilocal bulk geometry and the knowledge of the bulk geometry is always assumed or guessed. The fundamental problem of the bulk reconstruction program, which is \emph{recovering the bulk background geometry (metric)} from the boundary CFT state is still outstanding. In this work, we formulate a recipe to extract the bulk metric itself from the boundary state, specifically, the modular Hamiltonian information of spherical subregions in the boundary. Our recipe exploits the recent construction of Kabat and Lifschytz \cite{Kabat:2017mun} to first compute the bulk two point function of scalar fields directly in the CFT without knowledge of the bulk metric or the equations of motion, and then to take a large scaling dimension limit (WKB) to extract the geodesic distance between two close points in the bulk i.e. the metric. As a proof of principle, we consider three dimensional bulk and selected CFT states such as the vacuum and the thermofield double states. We show that they indeed reproduce the pure AdS and the regions outside the Rindler wedge and the BTZ black hole \emph{up to a rigid conformal factor}. Since our approach does not rely on symmetry properties of the CFT state, it can be applied to reconstruct asymptotically AdS geometries dual to arbitrary general CFT states provided the modular Hamiltonian is available. We discuss several obvious extensions to the case of higher spacetime dimensions as well as some future applications, in particular, for constructing metric beyond the causal wedge of a boundary region. In the process, we also extend the construction of \cite{Kabat:2017mun} to incorporate the first order perturbative locality for AdS scalars.

Connecting Fisher information to bulk entanglement in holography

In the context of relating AdS/CFT to quantum information theory, we propose a holographic dual of Fisher information metric for mixed states in the boundary field theory. This amounts to a holographic measure for the distance between two mixed quantum states. For a spherical subregion in the boundary we show that this is related to a particularly regularized volume enclosed by the Ryu-Takayanagi surface. We further argue that the quantum correction to the proposed Fisher information metric is related to the quantum correction to the boundary entanglement entropy. We discuss consequences of this connection.

Bulk connectedness and boundary entanglement

We prove, for any state in a conformal field theory defined on a set of boundary manifolds with corresponding classical holographic bulk geometry, that for any bipartition of the boundary into two non-clopen sets, the density matrix cannot be a tensor product of the reduced density matrices on each region of the bipartition. In particular, there must be entanglement across the bipartition surface. We extend this no-go theorem to general, arbitrary partitions of the boundary manifolds into non-clopen parts, proving that the density matrix cannot be a tensor product. This result gives a necessary condition for states to potentially correspond to holographic duals.

Entanglement entropy and boundary renormalization group flow: Exact results in the Ising universality class

The entanglement entropy in one dimensional critical systems with boundaries has been associated with the noninteger ground state degeneracy. This quantity, being a characteristic of boundary fixed points, decreases under renormalization group flow, as predicted by the g-theorem. Here, using conformal field theory methods, we exactly calculate the entanglement entropy in the boundary Ising universality class. Our expression can be separated into the well known bulk term and a boundary entanglement term, displaying a universal flow between two boundary conditions, in accordance with the g-theorem. These results are obtained within the replica trick approach, where we show that the associated twist field, a central object generating the geometry of an $n$-sheeted Riemann surface, can be bosonized, giving simple analytic access to multiple quantities of interest. We argue that our result applies to other models falling into the same universality class. This includes the vicinity of the quantum critical point of the two-channel Kondo model, allowing to track in real space the presence of a region containing one half of a qubit with entropy $\frac{1}{2} \log (2)$, associated with a free local Majorana fermion.

Loop quantum gravity, exact holographic mapping, and holographic entanglement entropy

The relation between Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) and tensor network is explored from the perspectives of bulk-boundary duality and holographic entanglement entropy. We find that the LQG spin-network states in a space $\Sigma$ with boundary $\partial\Sigma$ is an exact holographic mapping similar to the proposal in arXiv:1309.6282. The tensor network, understood as the boundary quantum state, is the output of the exact holographic mapping emerging from a coarse graining procedure of spin-networks. Furthermore, when a region $A$ and its complement $\bar{A}$ are specified on the boundary $\partial\Sigma$, we show that the boundary entanglement entropy $S(A)$ of the emergent tensor network satisfies the Ryu-Takayanagi formula in the semiclassical regime, i.e. $S(A)$ is proportional to the minimal area of the bulk surface attached to the boundary of $A$ in $\partial\Sigma$.

Topological crystalline Bose insulator in two dimensions via entanglement spectrum

Strongly correlated analogues of topological insulators have been explored in systems with purely on-site symmetries, such as time-reversal or charge conservation. Here, we use recently developed tensor network tools to study a quantum state of interacting bosons which is featureless in the bulk, but distinguished from an atomic insulator in that it exhibits entanglement which is protected by its spatial symmetries. These properties are encoded in a model many-body wavefunction that describes a fully symmetric insulator of bosons on the honeycomb lattice at half filling per site. While the resulting integer unit cell filling allows the state to bypass `no-go' theorems that trigger fractionalization at fractional filling, it nevertheless has nontrivial entanglement, protected by symmetry. We demonstrate this by computing the boundary entanglement spectra, finding a gapless entanglement edge described by a conformal field theory as well as degeneracies protected by the non-trivial action of combined charge-conservation and spatial symmetries on the edge. Here, the tight-binding representation of the space group symmetries plays a particular role in allowing certain entanglement cuts that are not allowed on other lattices of the same symmetry, suggesting that the lattice representation can serve as an additional symmetry ingredient in protecting an interacting topological phase. Our results extend to a related insulating state of electrons, with short-ranged entanglement and no band insulator analogue.

Covariant residual entropy

A recently explored interesting quantity in AdS/CFT, dubbed 'residual entropy', characterizes the amount of collective ignorance associated with either boundary observers restricted to finite time duration, or bulk observers who lack access to a certain spacetime region. However, the previously-proposed expression for this quantity involving variation of boundary entanglement entropy (subsequently renamed to 'differential entropy') works only in a severely restrictive context. We explain the key limitations, arguing that in general, differential entropy does not correspond to residual entropy. Given that the concept of residual entropy as collective ignorance transcends these limitations, we identify two correspondingly robust, covariantly-defined constructs: a 'strip wedge' associated with boundary observers and a 'rim wedge' associated with bulk observers. These causal sets are well-defined in arbitrary time-dependent asymptotically AdS spacetimes in any number of dimensions. We discuss their relation, specifying a criterion for when these two constructs coincide, and prove an inclusion relation for a general case. We also speculate about the implications for residual entropy. Curiously, despite each construct admitting a well-defined finite quantity related to the areas of associated bulk surfaces, these quantities are not in one-to-one correspondence with the defining regions of unknown. This has nontrivial implications about holographic measures of quantum information.