Quantum information-geometry of dissipative quantum phase transitions

Critical Quantum Metrology Assisted by Real-Time Feedback Control

We investigate critical quantum metrology, that is, the estimation of parameters in many-body systems close to a quantum critical point, through the lens of Bayesian inference theory. We first derive a no-go result stating that any nonadaptive strategy will fail to exploit quantum critical enhancement (i.e., precision beyond the shot-noise limit) for a sufficiently large number of particles N whenever our prior knowledge is limited. We then consider different adaptive strategies that can overcome this no-go result and illustrate their performance in the estimation of (i) a magnetic field using a probe of 1D spin Ising chain and (ii) the coupling strength in a Bose-Hubbard square lattice. Our results show that adaptive strategies with real-time feedback control can achieve sub-shot-noise scaling even with few measurements and substantial prior uncertainty.

Information geometry and Bose-Einstein condensation

It is a long held conjecture in the connection between information geometry (IG) and thermodynamics that the curvature endowed by IG diverges at phase transitions. Recent work on the IG of Bose-Einstein (BE) gases challenged this conjecture by saying that in the limit of fugacity approaching unit-where BE condensation is expected-the curvature does not diverge; rather, it converges to zero. However, as the discontinuous behavior that identifies condensation is only observed at the thermodynamic limit, a study of the IG curvature at a finite number of particles, N, is in order from which the thermodynamic behavior can be observed by taking the thermodynamic limit ( N→∞) posteriorly. This article presents such a study. We find that for a trapped gas, as N increases, the values of curvature decrease proportionally to a power of N, while the temperature at which the maximum value of curvature occurs approaches the usually defined critical temperature. This means that, in the thermodynamic limit, the curvature has a limited value where a phase transition is observed, contradicting the forementioned conjecture.

Rényi Mutual Information in Quantum Field Theory

We study a proper definition of Rényi mutual information (RMI) in quantum field theory as defined via the Petz Rényi relative entropy. Unlike the standard definition, the RMI we compute is a genuine measure of correlations between subsystems, as evidenced by its non-negativity and monotonicity under local operations. Furthermore, the RMI is UV finite and well defined in the continuum limit. We develop a replica path integral approach for the RMI in quantum field theories and evaluate it explicitly in 1+1D conformal field theory using twist fields. We prove that it bounds connected correlation functions and check our results against exact numerics in the massless free fermion theory.

In- and out-of-equilibrium quantum metrology with mean-field quantum criticality

We study the influence that collective transition phenomena have on quantum metrological protocols. The single spherical quantum spin (SQS) serves as stereotypical toy model that allows analytical insights on a mean-field level. First, we focus on equilibrium quantum criticality in the SQS and obtain the quantum Fisher information analytically, which is associated with the minimum lower bound for the precision of estimation of the parameter driving the phase transition. We compare it with the Fisher information for a specific experimental scenario where photon-counting-like measurements are employed. We find how quantum criticality and squeezing are useful resources in the metrological scenario. Second, we obtain the quantum Fisher information for the out-of-equilibrium transition in the dissipative nonequilibrium steady state and investigate how the presence of dissipation affects the parameter estimation. In this scenario, it is known that the critical point is shifted by an amount which depends on the dissipation rate. This is used here to design high precision protocols for a whole range of the transition-driving parameter in the ordered phase. In fact, for certain values of the parameter being estimated, dissipation may be used to obtain higher precision when compared to the equilibrium scenario.

Uhlmann curvature in dissipative phase transitions

A novel approach based on the Uhlmann curvature is introduced for the investigation of non-equilibrium steady-state quantum phase transitions (NESS-QPTs). Equilibrium phase transitions fall invariably into two markedly non-overlapping categories: classical phase transitions and quantum phase transitions. NESS-QPTs offer a unique arena where such a distinction fades off. We propose a method to reveal and quantitatively assess the quantum character of such critical phenomena. We apply this tool to a paradigmatic class of lattice fermion systems with local reservoirs, characterised by Gaussian non-equilibrium steady states. The relations between the behaviour of the Uhlmann curvature, the divergence of the correlation length, the character of the criticality and the dissipative gap are demonstrated. We argue that this tool can shade light upon the nature of non equilibrium steady state criticality in particular with regard to the role played by quantum vs classical fluctuations.

Symmetric Logarithmic Derivative of Fermionic Gaussian States

In this article, we derive a closed form expression for the symmetric logarithmic derivative of Fermionic Gaussian states. This provides a direct way of computing the quantum Fisher Information for Fermionic Gaussian states. Applications range from quantum Metrology with thermal states to non-equilibrium steady states with Fermionic many-body systems.

Dicke coupling by feasible local measurements at the superradiant quantum phase transition

We address characterization of many-body superradiant systems and establish a fundamental connection between quantum criticality and the possibility of locally estimating the coupling constant, i.e., extracting its value by probing only a portion of the whole system. In particular, we consider Dicke-like superradiant systems made of an ensemble of two-level atoms interacting with a single-mode radiation field at zero effective temperature, and address estimation of the coupling by measurements performed only on radiation. At first, we obtain analytically the quantum Fisher information (QFI) and show that optimal estimation of the coupling may be achieved by tuning the frequency of the radiation field to drive the system toward criticality. The scaling behavior of the QFI at the critical point is obtained explicitly upon exploiting the symplectic formalism for Gaussian states. We then analyze the performances of feasible detection schemes performed only on the radiation subsystem, namely homodyne detection and photon counting, and show that the corresponding Fisher informations (FIs) approach the global QFI in the critical region. We thus conclude that criticality is a twofold resource. On the one hand, global QFI diverges at the critical point, i.e., the coupling may be estimated with the arbitrary precision. On the other hand, the FIs of feasible local measurements (which are generally smaller than the QFI out of the critical region), show the same scaling of the global QFI; i.e., optimal estimation of coupling may be achieved by locally probing the system, despite its strongly interacting nature.

Quantum Fidelity for Arbitrary Gaussian States

We derive a computable analytical formula for the quantum fidelity between two arbitrary multimode Gaussian states which is simply expressed in terms of their first- and second-order statistical moments. We also show how such a formula can be written in terms of symplectic invariants and used to derive closed forms for a variety of basic quantities and tools, such as the Bures metric, the quantum Fisher information, and various fidelity-based bounds. Our result can be used to extend the study of continuous-variable protocols, such as quantum teleportation and cloning, beyond the current one-mode or two-mode analyses, and paves the way to solve general problems in quantum metrology and quantum hypothesis testing with arbitrary multimode Gaussian resources.

Relaxation times of dissipative many-body quantum systems

We study relaxation times, also called mixing times, of quantum many-body systems described by a Lindblad master equation. We in particular study the scaling of the spectral gap with the system length, the so-called dynamical exponent, identifying a number of transitions in the scaling. For systems with bulk dissipation we generically observe different scaling for small and for strong dissipation strength, with a critical transition strength going to zero in the thermodynamic limit. We also study a related phase transition in the largest decay mode. For systems with only boundary dissipation we show a generic bound that the gap cannot be larger than ∼1/L. In integrable systems with boundary dissipation one typically observes scaling of ∼1/L(3), while in chaotic ones one can have faster relaxation with the gap scaling as ∼1/L and thus saturating the generic bound. We also observe transition from exponential to algebraic gap in systems with localized modes.

Coherent quantum dynamics in steady-state manifolds of strongly dissipative systems

Recently, it has been realized that dissipative processes can be harnessed and exploited to the end of coherent quantum control and information processing. In this spirit, we consider strongly dissipative quantum systems admitting a nontrivial manifold of steady states. We show how one can enact adiabatic coherent unitary manipulations, e.g., quantum logical gates, inside this steady-state manifold by adding a weak, time-rescaled, Hamiltonian term into the system's Liouvillian. The effective long-time dynamics is governed by a projected Hamiltonian which results from the interplay between the weak unitary control and the fast relaxation process. The leakage outside the steady-state manifold entailed by the Hamiltonian term is suppressed by an environment-induced symmetrization of the dynamics. We present applications to quantum-computation in decoherence-free subspaces and noiseless subsystems and numerical analysis of nonadiabatic errors.