Siddharth Parameswaran

Abstract:

We study the non-unitary dynamics of a class of quantum circuits based on stochastically measuring check operators of subsystem quantum error-correcting codes, such as the Bacon-Shor code and its various generalizations. Our focus is on how properties of the underlying code are imprinted onto the measurement-only dynamics. We find that in a large class of codes with nonlocal stabilizer generators, at late times there is generically a nonlocal contribution to the subsystem entanglement entropy which scales with the subsystem size. The nonlocal stabilizer generators can also induce slow dynamics, since depending on the rate of competing measurements the associated degrees of freedom can take exponentially long (in system size) to purify (disentangle from the environment when starting from a mixed state) and to scramble (become entangled with the rest of the system when starting from a product state). Concretely, we consider circuits for which the nonlocal stabilizer generators of the underlying subsystem code take the form of subsystem symmetries. We present a systematic study of the phase diagrams and relevant time scales in two and three spatial dimensions for both Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) and non-CSS codes, focusing in particular on the link between slow measurement-only dynamics and the geometry of the subsystem symmetry. A key finding of our work is that slowly purifying or scrambling degrees of freedom appear to emerge only in codes whose subsystem symmetries are nonlocally generated, a strict subset of those whose symmetries are simply nonlocal. We comment on the link between our results on subsystem codes and the phenomenon of Hilbert-space fragmentation in light of their shared algebraic structure.

Abstract:

We show that Hubbard models with nearest-neighbor hopping and a nearest-neighbor hardcore constraint exhibit “maximal” Hilbert space fragmentation in many lattices of arbitrary dimension 𝑑. Focusing on the 𝑑 =1 rhombus chain and the 𝑑 =2 Lieb lattice, we demonstrate that the fragmentation is strong for all fillings in the thermodynamic limit, and explicitly construct all emergent integrals of motion, which include an extensive set of higher-form symmetries. Blockades consisting of frozen particles partition the system in real space, leading to anomalous dynamics. Our results are potentially relevant to optical lattices of dipolar and Rydberg-dressed atoms.