Wehrl entropy and entanglement complexity of quantum spin systems
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The Wehrl entropy of a quantum state is the Shannon entropy of its coherent-state distribution function, and remains non-zero even for pure states. We investigate the relationship between this entropy and the many-particle quantum entanglement, for N spin-1/2 particles. Explicitly, we numerically calculate the Wehrl entropy of various N-particle ( 2 ⩽ N ⩽ 20 ) entangled pure states, with respect to the SU(2) ⊗ N coherent states. Our results show that for the large-N ( N ≳ 10 ) systems the Wehrl entropy of the highly chaotic entangled states (e.g. 2 − N / 2 ∑ s 1 , s 2 , … , s N =↑ , ↓ | s 1 , s 2 , … , s N ⟩ e − i ϕ s 1 , s 2 , … , s N , with ϕ s 1 , s 2 , … , s N being random angles) are substantially larger than that of the very regular entangled states (e.g. the Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state). Therefore, the Wehrl entropy can reflect the complexity of the quantum entanglement of many-body pure states, as proposed by Sugita (2003 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 36 9081). In particular, the Wehrl entropy per particle (WEPP) can be used as a quantitative description of this entanglement complexity. Unlike other quantities used to evaluate this complexity (e.g. the degree of entanglement between a subsystem and the other particles), the WEPP does not necessitate the division of the total system into two subsystems. We further demonstrate that many-body pure entangled states can be classified into three types, based on the behavior of the WEPP in the limit N → ∞ : states approaching that of a maximally mixed state
Source: New Journal of Physics
Authors: Chen Xu, Yiqi Yu, Peng Zhang
Institution: Renmin University of China
Language: English
Topic: Quantum many-body systems
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,485
OpenAlex ID: W4405623915