Publications

Measurement-induced phases exhibit unconventional dynamics as emergent collective phenomena, yet their behavior in tailored interacting systems – crucial for quantum technologies – remains less understood. We develop a systematic toolbox to analyze monitored dynamics in long-range interacting systems, relevant to platforms like trapped ions and Rydberg atoms. Our method extends spin-wave theory to general dynamical generators at the quantum trajectory level, enabling access to a broader class of states than approaches based on density matrices. This allows efficient simulation of large-scale interacting spins and captures nonlinear dynamical features such as entanglement and trajectory correlations. We showcase the versatility of our framework by exploring entanglement phase transitions in a monitored spin system with power-law interactions in one and two dimensions, where the entanglement scaling changes from logarithm to volume law as the interaction range shortens, and by dwelling on how our method mitigates experimental post-selection challenges in detecting monitored quantum phases.

Measuring fluctuations in matter’s low-energy excitations is the key to unveiling the nature of the non-equilibrium response of materials. A promising outlook in this respect is offered by spectroscopic methods that address matter fluctuations by exploiting the statistical nature of light-matter interactions with weak few-photon probes. Here we report the first implementation of ultrafast phase randomized tomography, combining pump-probe experiments with quantum optical state tomography, to measure the ultrafast non-equilibrium dynamics in complex materials. Our approach utilizes a time-resolved multimode heterodyne detection scheme with phase-randomized coherent ultrashort laser pulses, overcoming the limitations of phase-stable configurations and enabling a robust reconstruction of the statistical distribution of phase-averaged optical observables. This methodology is validated by measuring the coherent phonon response in α-quartz. By tracking the dynamics of the shot-noise limited photon number distribution of few-photon probes with ultrafast resolution, our results set an upper limit to the non-classical features of phononic state in α-quartz and provide a pathway to access non-equilibrium quantum fluctuations in more complex quantum materials.

This summary of the second Terrestrial Very-Long-Baseline Atom Interferometry (TVLBAI) Workshop provides a comprehensive overview of our meeting held in London in April 2024 (Second Terrestrial Very-Long-Baseline Atom Interferometry Workshop, Imperial College, April 2024), building on the initial discussions during the inaugural workshop held at CERN in March 2023 (First Terrestrial Very-Long-Baseline Atom Interferometry Workshop, CERN, March 2023). Like the summary of the first workshop (Abend et al. in AVS Quantum Sci. 6:024701, 2024), this document records a critical milestone for the international atom interferometry community. It documents our concerted efforts to evaluate progress, address emerging challenges, and refine strategic directions for future large-scale atom interferometry projects. Our commitment to collaboration is manifested by the integration of diverse expertise and the coordination of international resources, all aimed at advancing the frontiers of atom interferometry physics and technology, as set out in a Memorandum of Understanding signed by over 50 institutions (Memorandum of Understanding for the Terrestrial Very Long Baseline Atom Interferometer Study).

We investigate a phenomenon known as Superactivation of Backflow of Information (SBFI); namely, the fact that the tensor product of a non-Markovian dynamics with itself exhibits Backflow of Information (BFI) from environment to system even if the single dynamics does not. Such an effect is witnessed by the non-monotonic behaviour of the Helstrom norm and emerges in the open dynamics of two independent, but statistically coupled, parties. We physically interpret SBFI by means of the discrete-time non-Markovian dynamics of two open qubits collisionally coupled to an environment described by a classical Markov chain. In such a scenario, SBFI can be ascribed to the decrease of the qubit-qubit-environment correlations in favour of those of the two qubits, only. We further prove that the same mechanism at the roots of SBFI also holds in a suitable continuous-time limit. We also show that SBFI does not require entanglement to be witnessed, but only the quantumness of the Helstrom ensemble.

Locality is a transversal principle that governs quantum dynamics of many-body systems. However, for cavity-embedded systems, such a fundamental notion is hindered by the presence of nonlocal cavity modes, leaving space for new possible dynamical behavior. Here, we investigate the real-time dynamics of low-energy excitations in one-dimensional Rydberg atom arrays coupled to a global cavity mode. We derive an effective description in terms of a Tavis-Cummings-Ising model, whose phase diagram features ordered and disordered phases. The nonlocal nature of the cavity mode drastically affects the emergent meson and string dynamics. Mesons hybridize coherently with the cavity photons, leading to composite meson-polariton excitations. Strings, differently from local interacting theories, acquire a finite kinetic energy thanks to nonlocal cavity-mediated interactions between the underlying domain walls. We then conclude by presenting a new concrete experimental blueprint for a cavity QED Rydberg atom array simulator where the physics outlined in this Letter can be realized.

We study the directed transport of bosons along a one dimensional lattice in a dissipative setting, where the hopping is only facilitated by coupling to a Markovian reservoir. By combining numerical simulations with a field-theoretic analysis, we investigate the current fluctuations for this process and determine its asymptotic behavior. These findings demonstrate that dissipative bosonic transport belongs to the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class and therefore, in spite of the drastic difference in the underlying particle statistics, it features the same coarse-grained behavior as the corresponding asymmetric simple exclusion process for fermions. However, crucial differences between the two processes emerge when focusing on the full counting statistics of current fluctuations. By mapping both models to the physics of fluctuating interfaces, we find that dissipative transport of bosons and fermions can be understood as surface growth and erosion processes, respectively. Within this unified description, both the similarities and discrepancies between the full counting statistics of the transport are reconciled. Beyond purely theoretical interest, these findings are relevant for experiments with cold atoms or long-lived quasiparticles in nanophotonic lattices, where such transport scenarios can be realized.

We study a three-orbital Hubbard-Kanamori model relevant for iron-based superconductors using variational wave functions explicitly including spatial correlations and electron pairing. We span the nonmagnetic sector from filling n=4, which is representative of undoped iron-based superconductors, to n=3, where a Mott insulating state with each orbital at half filling is found. In the strong-coupling regime, when the electron density is increased, we find a spontaneous differentiation between the occupation of dxz and dyz orbitals, leading to an orbital-selective state with a nematic character that becomes stronger at increasing density. One of these orbitals stays half filled for all densities while the other one hosts (together with the dxy orbital) the excess of electron density. Most importantly, in this regime long-range pairing correlations appear in the orbital with the largest occupation. Our results highlight a strong link between orbital-selective correlations, nematicity, and superconductivity, which requires the presence of a significant Hund's coupling.

Understanding how entanglement can be reduced through simple operations is crucial for both classical and quantum algorithms. We investigate the entanglement properties of lattice models hosting conformal field theories cooled via local Clifford operations, a procedure we refer to as stabilizer disentangling. We uncover two distinct regimes: a constant gain regime, where disentangling is volume-independent, and a log-gain regime, where disentanglement increases with volume, characterized by a reduced effective central charge. In both cases, disentangling efficiency correlates with the target state magic, with larger magic leading to more effective cooling. The dichotomy between the two cases stems from mutual stabilizer Rényi entropy, which influences the entanglement cooling process. We provide an analytical understanding of such effect in the context of cluster Ising models, that feature disentangling global Clifford operations. Our findings indicate that matrix product states possess subclasses based on the relationship between entanglement and magic, and clarifying the potential of new classes of variational states embedding Clifford dynamics within matrix product states.

We extend the recently introduced Clifford-dressed time-dependent variational principle (TDVP) to efficiently compute many-body wave-function amplitudes in the computational basis. This advancement enhances the study of Loschmidt echoes, which generally require accurate calculations of the overlap between the evolved state and the initial wave function. By incorporating Clifford-disentangling gates during TDVP evolution, our method effectively controls entanglement growth while keeping the computation of these amplitudes accessible. Specifically, it reduces the problem to evaluating the overlap between a matrix product state (MPS) and a stabilizer state, a task that remains computationally feasible within the proposed framework. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach, we first benchmark it on the one-dimensional transverse-field Ising model. We then apply it to more challenging scenarios, including a nonintegrable next-to-nearest-neighbor Ising chain and a two-dimensional Ising model. Our results highlight the versatility and efficiency of the Clifford-augmented MPS, showcasing its capability to go beyond the evaluation of simple expectation values. This makes it a powerful tool for exploring various aspects of many-body quantum dynamics.

We study the behavior of the classical XY model on a two-dimensional square lattice, with interactions occurring within a vision cone of each spin. Via Monte Carlo simulations, we explore one non-reciprocal and two reciprocal implementations of these interactions. The corresponding energy involves couplings that depend non-trivially on the system’s configuration, leading to both long-range and quasi-long-range ordered phases at low temperatures. Our results demonstrate that non-reciprocity is not essential for achieving long-range order at low temperatures. Using symmetry arguments, we provide a theoretical framework to explain these findings, and additionally we uncover an unexpected order-by-disorder transition.

We propose an enhanced time-dependent variational principle (TDVP) algorithm for matrix product states that integrates Clifford disentangling techniques to efficiently manage entanglement growth. By leveraging the Clifford group, which maps Pauli strings to other Pauli strings while maintaining low computational complexity, we introduce a Clifford dressed single-site 1-TDVP scheme. During the TDVP integration, we apply a global Clifford transformation as needed to reduce entanglement by iteratively sweeping over two-qubit Clifford unitaries that connect neighboring sites in a checkerboard pattern. We validate the new algorithm numerically using various quantum many-body models, including both integrable and nonintegrable systems. Our results demonstrate that the Clifford dressed TDVP significantly improves entanglement management and computational efficiency, achieving higher accuracy, extended simulation times, and enhanced precision in computed observables compared to standard TDVP approaches. Additionally, we propose incorporating Clifford gates directly within the two-site 2-TDVP scheme.

We present a variational quantum adiabatic theorem, which states that, under certain assumptions, the adiabatic dynamics projected onto a variational manifold follow the instantaneous variational ground state. We focus on low-entanglement variational manifolds and target Hamiltonians with classical ground states. Despite highly entangled intermediate states along the exact adiabatic path, the variational evolution converges to the target ground state. We demonstrate this approach with several examples that align with our theoretical analysis.

We study the probability distribution of the first return time to the initial state of a quantum many-body system subject to global projective measurements at stroboscopic times. We show that this distribution can be mapped to a continuation of the canonical partition function of a classical spin chain with noninteracting domains at equilibrium, which is entirely characterized by the Loschmidt amplitude of the quantum many-body system. This allows us to conclude that this probability may decay either algebraically or exponentially at long times, depending on whether the spin chain displays a ferromagnetic or a paramagnetic phase. We illustrate this idea on the example of the return time of N adjacent fermions in a tight-binding model, revealing a rich phase behavior, which can be tuned by scaling the probing time as a function of N. The analysis presented here provides an overarching understanding of many-body quantum first detection problems in terms of equilibrium thermodynamic phases. Our theoretical predictions are in excellent agreement with exact numerical computations.

The entanglement Hamiltonian (EH) provides the most comprehensive characterization of bipartite entanglement in many-body quantum systems. Ground states of local Hamiltonians inherit this locality, resulting in EHs that are dominated by local, few-body terms. Unfortunately, in nonequilibrium situations, analytic results are rare and largely confined to continuous field theories, which fail to accurately describe microscopic models. To address this gap, we present an analytic result for the EH following a quantum quench in noninteracting fermionic models, valid in the ballistic scaling regime. The derivation adapts the celebrated quasiparticle picture to operators, providing detailed insights into its physical properties. The resulting analytic formula serves as a foundation for engineering EHs in quantum optics experiments.

We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of bosons in a two-dimensional optical lattice after a sudden quench from the superfluid phase to the free-boson regime. The initial superfluid state is described approximately using both the Bogoliubov theory and the Gaussian variational principle. The subsequent time evolution remains Gaussian, and we compare the results from each approximation of the initial state by examining different aspects of the dynamics. First, we analyze the entanglement entropy and observe that, in both cases, it increases linearly with time before reaching a saturation point. This behavior is attributed to the propagation of entangled pairs of quantum depletions in the superfluid state. Next, we explore the fate of particle-number symmetry, which is spontaneously broken in the superfluid phase. To do so, we use the entanglement asymmetry, a recently introduced observable that enables us to track symmetry breaking within a subsystem. We observe that its evolution varies qualitatively depending on the theory used to describe the initial state. However, in both cases, the symmetry remains broken and is never restored in the stationary state. Finally, we assess the time it takes to reach the stationary state by evaluating the quantum fidelity between the stationary reduced density matrix and the time-evolved one. Interestingly, within the Gaussian variational principle, we find that an initial state further from the stationary state can relax more quickly than one closer to it, indicating the presence of the recently discovered quantum Mpemba effect. We derive the microscopic conditions necessary for this effect to occur and demonstrate that these conditions are never met in the Bogoliubov theory.

We investigate Lorentz invariance breaking in quantum wires due to Rashba spin-orbit interaction and transverse phonons. Using bosonization, we derive an effective action coupling electronic and mechanical degrees of freedom. Strikingly, at a quantum phase transition between straight and bent wire states, we find a gapped phonon mode and a gapless mode with quadratic dispersion, signaling the breaking of Lorentz invariance. We explore stability conditions for general potentials and propose nanomechanical back action as a sensitive tool for detecting this transition, with implications for sliding Luttinger liquids and dimensional crossover studies.

Monitored quantum system have sparked great interest in recent years due to the possibility of observing measurement-induced phase transitions (MIPTs) in the full-counting statistics of quantum trajectories. Here, we investigate the dynamics of the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model, composed of N all-to-all interacting spins 1/2, under a weak external monitoring. In the thermodynamic limit, we derive a set of semiclassical stochastic equations describing the evolution of the expectation values of global spin observables. Our results show that the limit N→∞ does not commute with the long-time limit: while for any finite N the average over trajectories is expected to converge towards a trivial steady state, in the thermodynamic limit a MIPT appears. The transition is not affected by postselection issues, as it is already visible at the level of ensemble averages. We derive a quantitative theoretical picture explaining the nature of the transition within our semiclassical approach.

Recent breakthrough experiments have demonstrated how it is now possible to explore the dynamics of quantum Hall states interacting with quantum electromagnetic cavity fields. While the impact of strongly coupled nonlocal cavity modes on integer quantum Hall physics has been recently addressed, the effects on fractional quantum Hall (FQH) liquids - and, more generally, fractionalized states of matter - remain largely unexplored. In this work, we develop a theoretical framework for the understanding of FQH states coupled to quantum light. In particular, combining analytical arguments with tensor network simulations, we study the dynamics of a ν=1/3 Laughlin state in a single-mode cavity with finite electric field gradients. We find that the topological signatures of the FQH state remain robust against the nonlocal cavity vacuum fluctuations, as indicated by the endurance of the quantized Hall resistivity. The entanglement spectra, however, carry direct fingerprints of light-matter entanglement and topology, revealing peculiar polaritonic replicas of the U(1) counting. As a further response to cavity fluctuations, we also find a squeezed FQH geometry, encoded in long-wavelength correlations. By exploring the low-energy excited spectrum inside the FQH phase, we identify a new neutral quasiparticle, the graviton polariton, arising from the hybridization between quadrupolar FQH collective excitations (known as gravitons) and light. Pushing the light-matter interaction to ultrastrong-coupling regimes, we find other two important effects, a cavity vacuum-induced Stark shift for charged quasiparticles and a potential instability toward a density modulated stripe phase, competing against the phase separation driven by the Stark shift. Finally, we discuss the experimental implications of our findings and possible extension of our results to more complex scenarios.

A key challenge in observing measurement-induced phase transitions is the mitigation of the post-selection barrier, which causes the reproducibility of specific sequences of measurement readouts - the trajectory - to be exponentially small in system size. Recent studies suggest that some classes of monitored infinite-range systems alleviate this problem by exhibiting a fast saturation of entanglement, resulting in only a polynomial post-selection overhead. This paper answers whether this feature is inherent in infinite-range systems, due to their underlying semiclassical dynamics. We consider three experimentally relevant monitored models: a Tavis-Cummings model, a Superradiance model, and a Bose-Hubbard dimer, each exhibiting nontrivial monitored dynamics. We unveil the occurrence of entanglement phase transitions in these models, showing how the saturation time is strongly affected by bistability regions, which also prevent the mitigation of the post-selection barrier. Finally, we propose experimental realizations of these models, providing a discussion of post selection from an experimental perspective.

The ghost-Gutzwiller variational wave function within the Gutzwiller approximation is shown to stabilize a genuine paramagnetic Mott insulator in the half-filled single-band Hubbard model. This phase hosts quasiparticles that are crucial to the paramagnetic response without showing up in the single-particle spectrum, and, as such, they can be legitimately regarded as an example of Anderson's spinons. We demonstrate that these spinons at the interface with a metal reacquire charge by proximity effect and thus reemerge in the spectrum as a heavy-fermion band.