Correlations, spectral gap, and entanglement in harmonic quantum systems on generic lattices (original) (raw)

An entanglement-area law for general bosonic harmonic lattice systems

2005

We demonstrate that the entropy of entanglement and the distillable entanglement of regions with respect to the rest of a general harmonic lattice system in the ground or a thermal state scale at most as the boundary area of the region. This area law is rigorously proven to hold true in non-critical harmonic lattice system of arbitrary spatial dimension, for general finite-ranged harmonic interactions, regions of arbitrary shape and states of nonzero temperature. For nearest-neighbor interactions -corresponding to the Klein-Gordon case -upper and lower bounds to the degree of entanglement can be stated explicitly for arbitrarily shaped regions, generalizing the findings of [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 060503 (2005)]. These higher dimensional analogues of the analysis of block entropies in the one-dimensional case show that under general conditions, one can expect an area law for the entanglement in non-critical harmonic many-body systems. The proofs make use of methods from entanglement theory, as well as of results on matrix functions of block banded matrices. Disordered systems are also considered. We moreover construct a class of examples for which the two-point correlation length diverges, yet still an area law can be proven to hold. We finally consider the scaling of classical correlations in a classical harmonic system and relate it to a quantum lattice system with a modified interaction. We briefly comment on a general relationship between criticality and area laws for the entropy of entanglement.

Entropy, entanglement, and area: analytical results for harmonic lattice systems

2004

We revisit the question of the relation between entanglement, entropy, and area for harmonic lattice Hamiltonians corresponding to discrete versions of real free Klein-Gordon fields. For the ground state of the ddimensional cubic harmonic lattice we establish a strict relationship between the surface area of a distinguished hypercube and the degree of entanglement between the hypercube and the rest of the lattice analytically, without resorting to numerical means. We outline extensions of these results to longer ranged interactions, finite temperatures and for classical correlations in classical harmonic lattice systems. These findings further suggest that the tools of quantum information science may help in establishing results in quantum field theory that were previously less accessible.

Entanglement-area law for general bosonic harmonic lattice systems

Physical Review A, 2006

We demonstrate that the entropy of entanglement and the distillable entanglement of regions with respect to the rest of a general harmonic lattice system in the ground or a thermal state scale at most as the boundary area of the region. This area law is rigorously proven to hold true in non-critical harmonic lattice system of arbitrary spatial dimension, for general finite-ranged harmonic interactions, regions of arbitrary shape and states of nonzero temperature. For nearest-neighbor interactions -corresponding to the Klein-Gordon case -upper and lower bounds to the degree of entanglement can be stated explicitly for arbitrarily shaped regions, generalizing the findings of [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 060503 (2005)]. These higher dimensional analogues of the analysis of block entropies in the one-dimensional case show that under general conditions, one can expect an area law for the entanglement in non-critical harmonic many-body systems. The proofs make use of methods from entanglement theory, as well as of results on matrix functions of block banded matrices. Disordered systems are also considered. We moreover construct a class of examples for which the two-point correlation length diverges, yet still an area law can be proven to hold. We finally consider the scaling of classical correlations in a classical harmonic system and relate it to a quantum lattice system with a modified interaction. We briefly comment on a general relationship between criticality and area laws for the entropy of entanglement.

Thermal state entanglement in harmonic lattices

Physical Review A, 2008

We investigate the entanglement properties of thermal states of the harmonic lattice in one, two and three dimensions. We establish the value of the critical temperature for entanglement between neighbouring sites and give physical reasons. Further sites are shown to be entangled only due to boundary effects. Other forms of entanglement are addressed in the second part of the paper by using the energy as witness of entanglement. We close with a comprehensive diagram showing the different phases of entanglement versus complete separability and propose techniques to swap and tune entanglement experimentally.

Entanglement and Criticality in Translationally Invariant Harmonic Lattice Systems with Finite-Range Interactions

Physical Review Letters, 2005

We discuss the relation between entanglement and criticality in translationally invariant harmonic lattice systems with non-randon, finite-range interactions. We show that the criticality of the system as well as validity or break-down of the entanglement area law are solely determined by the analytic properties of the spectral function of the oscillator system, which can easily be computed. In particular for finite-range couplings we find a one-to-one correspondence between an area-law scaling of the bi-partite entanglement and a finite correlation length. This relation is strict in the one-dimensional case and there is strog evidence for the multi-dimensional case. We also discuss generalizations to couplings with infinite range. Finally, to illustrate our results, a specific 1D example with nearest and next-nearest neighbor coupling is analyzed.

Entanglement at the quantum phase transition in a harmonic lattice

New Journal of Physics, 2010

The entanglement properties of the phase transition in a two dimensional harmonic lattice, similar to the one observed in recent ion trap experiments, are discussed both, for finite number of particles and thermodynamical limit. We show that for the ground state at the critical value of the trapping potential two entanglement measures, the negativity between two neighbouring sites and the block entropy for blocks of size 1, 2 and 3, change abruptly. Entanglement thus indicates quantum phase transitions in general; not only in the finite dimensional case considered in [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 93}, 250404 (2004)]. Finally, we consider the thermal state and compare its exact entanglement with a temperature entanglement witness introduced in [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 77} 062102 (2008)].

Exact analysis of entanglement in gapped quantum spin chains

Physical Review B, 2007

We investigate the entanglement properties of the valence-bond-solid states with generic integer spin S. Using the Schwinger boson representation of the valence-bond-solid states, the entanglement entropy, the von Neumann entropy of a subsystem, is obtained exactly and its relationship with the usual correlation function is clarified. The saturation value of the entanglement entropy, 2 log 2 ͑S +1͒, is derived explicitly and is interpreted in terms of the edge-state picture. The validity of our analytical results and the edge-state picture is numerically confirmed. We also propose an application of the edge state as a qubit for quantum computation.

Entanglement versus gap for one-dimensional spin systems

New Journal of Physics, 2010

We study the relationship between entanglement and spectral gap for local Hamiltonians in one dimension. The area law for a one-dimensional system states that for the ground state, the entanglement of any interval is upper-bounded by a constant independent of the size of the interval. However, the possible dependence of the upper bound on the spectral gap ∆ is not known, as the best known general upper bound is asymptotically much larger than the largest possible entropy of any model system previously constructed for small ∆. To help resolve this asymptotic behavior, we construct a family of one-dimensional local systems for which some intervals have entanglement entropy which is polynomial in 1/∆, whereas previously studied systems, such as free fermion systems or systems described by conformal field theory, had the entropy of all intervals bounded by a constant times log(1/∆).

Correlation Energy and Entanglement Gap in Continuous Models

International Journal of Quantum Information, 2011

Our goal is to clarify the relation between entanglement and correlation energy in a bipartite system with infinite dimensional Hilbert space. To this aim, we consider the completely solvable Moshinsky's model of two linearly coupled harmonic oscillators. Also, for small values of the couplings, the entanglement of the ground state is nonlinearly related to the correlation energy, involving logarithmic or algebraic corrections. Then, looking for witness observables of the entanglement, we show how to give a physical interpretation of the correlation energy. In particular, we have proven that there exists a set of separable states, continuously connected with the Hartree–Fock state, which may have a larger overlap with the exact ground state, but also a larger energy expectation value. In this sense, the correlation energy provides an entanglement gap, i.e. an energy scale, under which measurements performed on the 1-particle harmonic sub-system can discriminate the ground state ...

Entanglement of collectively interacting harmonic chains: An effective two-dimensional system

Physical Review A, 2007

We study the ground-state entanglement of one-dimensional harmonic chains that are coupled to each other by a collective interaction as realized e.g. in an anisotropic ion crystal. Due to the collective type of coupling, where each chain interacts with every other one in the same way, the total system shows critical behavior in the direction orthogonal to the chains while the isolated harmonic chains can be gapped and non-critical. We derive lower and most importantly upper bounds for the entanglement, quantified by the von Neumann entropy, between a compact block of oscillators and its environment. For sufficiently large size of the subsystems the bounds coincide and show that the area law for entanglement is violated by a logarithmic correction.