No Arabic abstract
We present a protocol to experimentally measure the infinite-temperature out-of-time-ordered correlation (OTOC) -- which is a probe of quantum information scrambling in a system -- for systems with a Hamiltonian which has either a chiral symmetry or a particle-hole symmetry. We show that the OTOC can be obtained by preparing two entangled systems, evolving them with the Hamiltonian, and measuring appropriate local observables. At the cost of requiring two copies of the system and putting restrictions on the Hamiltonians symmetries, we show that our method provides some advantages over existing methods -- it can be implemented without reversing the sign of the Hamiltonian, it requires fewer measurements than schemes based on implementing the SWAP operator, and it is robust to imperfections like some earlier methods. Our ideas can be implemented in currently available quantum platforms.
Information scrambling, which is the spread of local information through a systems many-body degrees of freedom, is an intrinsic feature of many-body dynamics. In quantum systems, the out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC) quantifies information scrambling. Motivated by experiments that have measured the OTOC at infinite temperature and a theory proposal to measure the OTOC at finite temperature using the thermofield double state, we describe a protocol to measure the OTOC in a finite temperature spin chain that is realized approximately as one half of the ground state of two moderately-sized coupled spin chains. We consider a spin Hamiltonian with particle-hole symmetry, for which we show that the OTOC can be measured without needing sign-reversal of the Hamiltonian. We describe a protocol to mitigate errors in the estimated OTOC, arising from the finite approximation of the system to the thermofield double state. We show that our protocol is also robust to main sources of decoherence in experiments.
High precision macroscopic quantum control in interacting light-matter systems remains a significant goal toward novel information processing and ultra-precise metrology. We show that the out-of-equilibrium behavior of a paradigmatic light-matter system (Dicke model) reveals two successive stages of enhanced quantum correlations beyond the traditional schemes of near-adiabatic and sudden quenches. The first stage features magnification of matter-only and light-only entanglement and squeezing due to effective non-linear self-interactions. The second stage results from a highly entangled light-matter state, with enhanced superradiance and signatures of chaotic and highly quantum states. We show that these new effects scale up consistently with matter system size, and are reliable even in dissipative environments.
The out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC) is central to the understanding of information scrambling in quantum many-body systems. In this work, we show that the OTOC in a quantum many-body system close to its critical point obeys dynamical scaling laws which are specified by a few universal critical exponents of the quantum critical point. Such scaling laws of the OTOC imply a universal form for the butterfly velocity of a chaotic system in the quantum critical region and allow one to locate the quantum critical point and extract all universal critical exponents of the quantum phase transitions. We numerically confirm the universality of the butterfly velocity in a chaotic model, namely the transverse axial next-nearest-neighbor Ising model, and show the feasibility of extracting the critical properties of quantum phase transitions from OTOC using the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model.
Out-of-time-ordered correlation functions (OTOCs) play a crucial role in the study of thermalization, entanglement, and quantum chaos, as they quantify the scrambling of quantum information due to complex interactions. As a consequence of their out-of-time-ordered nature, OTOCs are difficult to measure experimentally. In this Letter we propose an OTOC measurement protocol that does not rely on the reversal of time evolution and is easy to implement in a range of experimental settings. We demonstrate application of our protocol by the characterization of quantum chaos in a periodically driven spin.
Two topics, evolving rapidly in separate fields, were combined recently: The out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC) signals quantum-information scrambling in many-body systems. The Kirkwood-Dirac (KD) quasiprobability represents operators in quantum optics. The OTOC has been shown to equal a moment of a summed quasiprobability. That quasiprobability, we argue, is an extension of the KD distribution. We explore the quasiprobabilitys structure from experimental, numerical, and theoretical perspectives. First, we simplify and analyze the weak-measurement and interference protocols for measuring the OTOC and its quasiprobability. We decrease, exponentially in system size, the number of trials required to infer the OTOC from weak measurements. We also construct a circuit for implementing the weak-measurement scheme. Next, we calculate the quasiprobability (after coarse-graining) numerically and analytically: We simulate a transverse-field Ising model first. Then, we calculate the quasiprobability averaged over random circuits, which model chaotic dynamics. The quasiprobability, we find, distinguishes chaotic from integrable regimes. We observe nonclassical behaviors: The quasiprobability typically has negative components. It becomes nonreal in some regimes. The onset of scrambling breaks a symmetry that bifurcates the quasiprobability, as in classical-chaos pitchforks. Finally, we present mathematical properties. The quasiprobability obeys a Bayes-type theorem, for example, that exponentially decreases the memory required to calculate weak values, in certain cases. A time-ordered correlator analogous to the OTOC, insensitive to quantum-information scrambling, depends on a quasiprobability closer to a classical probability. This work not only illuminates the OTOCs underpinnings, but also generalizes quasiprobability theory and motivates immediate-future weak-measurement challenges.