Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: We explore a roughening phase transition that occurs in the entanglement dynamics of certain quantum circuits. Viewing entanglement as the free energy of a membrane in a circuit-defined random environment, there is a competition between membrane smoothing due to lattice pinning and roughening due to disorder in the circuit. In particular, we investigate the randomness-induced roughening transition of the entanglement membrane in a (3+1)-dimensional Clifford circuit model by calculating the entanglement entropy for various bipartitions. We further construct a scaling theory for membranes tilted away from lattice planes, uncovering new scaling forms and a crossover to a previously unexplored critical "tilted regime."
Source: Physical Review Letters
DOI: 10.1103/gkwd-8477
Authors: Hyunsoo Ha, David A. Huse, Grace M. Sommers
Institution: Princeton University
Language: English
Topic: Quantum many-body systems
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Science Foundation
OpenAlex ID: W4415250229