Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Symmetries, conservation laws and entanglement in non-Hermitian fermionic lattices

  Rafael D. Soares, Youenn Le Gal, Chun Y. Leung, Dganit Meidan, Alessandro Romito, Marco Schirò

  SciPost Phys. 19, 094 (2025) · published 13 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Non-Hermitian quantum many-body systems feature steady-state entanglement transitions driven by the competition between unitary dynamics and dissipation. In this work, we reveal the fundamental role of conservation laws in shaping this competition. Focusing on translation-invariant non-interacting fermionic models with U(1) symmetry, we present a theoretical framework to understand the structure of the steady-state of these models and their entanglement content based on two ingredients: the nature of the spectrum of the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian and the constraints imposed on the steady-state single-particle occupation by the conserved quantities. These emerge from an interplay between Hamiltonian symmetries and initial state, due to the non-linearity of measurement back-action. For models with complex energy spectrum, we show that the steady state is obtained by filling single-particle right eigenstates with the largest imaginary part of the eigenvalue. As a result, one can have partially filled or fully filled bands in the steady-state, leading to an entanglement entropy undergoing a filling-driven transition between critical sub-volume scaling and area-law, similar to ground-state problems. Conversely, when the spectrum is fully real, we provide evidence that local observables can be captured using a diagonal ensemble, and the entanglement entropy exhibits a volume-law scaling independently on the initial state, akin to unitary dynamics. We illustrate these principles in the Hatano-Nelson model with periodic boundary conditions and the non-Hermitian Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, uncovering a rich interplay between the single-particle spectrum and conservation laws in determining the steady-state structure and the entanglement transitions. These conclusions are supported by exact analytical calculations and numerical calculations relying on the Faber polynomial method.

  1 citation

• Fractal decompositions and tensor network representations of Bethe wavefunctions

  Subhayan Sahu, Guifre Vidal

  SciPost Phys. Core 8, 067 (2025) · published 10 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the entanglement structure of a generic $M$-particle Bethe wavefunction (not necessarily an eigenstate of an integrable model) on a 1d lattice by dividing the lattice into $L$ parts and decomposing the wavefunction into a sum of products of $L$ local wavefunctions. Using the fact that a Bethe wavefunction accepts a fractal multipartite decomposition – it can always be written as a linear combination of $L^M$ products of $L$ local wavefunctions, where each local wavefunction is in turn also a Bethe wavefunction – we then build exact, analytical tensor network representations with finite bond dimension $\chi=2^M$, for a generic planar tree tensor network (TTN), which includes a matrix product states (MPS) and a regular binary TTN as prominent particular cases. For a regular binary tree, the network has depth $\log_{2}(N/M)$ and can be transformed into an adaptive quantum circuit of the same depth, composed of unitary gates acting on $2^M$-dimensional qudits and mid-circuit measurements, that deterministically prepares the Bethe wavefunction. Finally, we put forward a much larger class of generalized Bethe wavefunctions, for which the above decompositions, tensor network and quantum circuit representations are also possible.

• Efficient mutual magic and magic capacity with matrix product states

  Poetri Sonya Tarabunga, Tobias Haug

  SciPost Phys. 19, 085 (2025) · published 6 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Stabilizer Rényi entropies (SREs) probe the non-stabilizerness (or "magic") of many-body systems and quantum computers. Here, we introduce the mutual von-Neumann SRE and magic capacity, which can be efficiently computed in time $O(N\chi^3)$ for matrix product states (MPSs) of bond dimension $\chi$. We find that mutual SRE characterizes the critical point of ground states of the transverse-field Ising model, independently of the chosen local basis. Then, we relate the magic capacity to the anti-flatness of the Pauli spectrum, which quantifies the complexity of computing SREs. The magic capacity characterizes transitions in the ground state of the Heisenberg and Ising model, randomness of Clifford+T circuits, and distinguishes typical and atypical states. Finally, we make progress on numerical techniques: we design two improved Monte-Carlo algorithms to compute the mutual $2$-SRE, overcoming limitations of previous approaches based on local update. We also give improved statevector simulation methods for Bell sampling and SREs with $O(8^{N/2})$ time and $O(2^N)$ memory, which we demonstrate for $24$ qubits. Our work uncovers improved approaches to study the complexity of quantum many-body systems.

  3 citations

• Dissipation and noise in strongly driven Josephson junctions

  Vasilii Vadimov, Yoshiki Sunada, Mikko Möttönen

  SciPost Phys. Core 8, 065 (2025) · published 6 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In circuit quantum electrodynamical systems, the quasiparticle-related losses in Josephson junctions are suppressed due to the gap in the superconducting density of states which is much higher than the typical energy of a microwave photon. In this work, we show that a strong drive even at a frequency lower than twice the superconductor gap parameter can activate dissipation in the junctions due to photon-assisted breaking of the Cooper pairs. Both the decay rate and noise strength associated with the losses are sensitive to the dc phase bias of the junction and can be tuned in a broad range by the amplitude and the frequency of the external driving field, making the suggested mechanism potentially attractive for designing tunable dissipative elements. We also predict pronounced memory effects in the driven Josephson junctions, which are appealing for both theoretical and experimental studies of non-Markovian physics in superconducting quantum circuits. We illustrate our theoretical findings by studying the spectral properties and the steady-state population of a low-impedance resonator coupled to the driven Josephson junction: we show the emergence of non-Lorentzian spectral lines and broad tunability of effective temperature of the steady state.

• Super-resolving normalising flows for lattice field theories

  Marc Bauer, Renzo Kapust, Jan Martin Pawlowski, Finn Leon Temmen

  SciPost Phys. 19, 077 (2025) · published 26 September 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose a renormalisation group inspired normalising flow that combines benefits from traditional Markov chain Monte Carlo methods and standard normalising flows to sample lattice field theories. Specifically, we use samples from a coarse lattice field theory and learn a stochastic map to the targeted fine theory. The devised architecture allows for systematic improvements and efficient sampling on lattices as large as $128 × 128$ in all phases when only having sampling access on a $4× 4$ lattice. This paves the way for reaping the benefits of traditional MCMC methods on coarse lattices while using normalising flows to learn transformations towards finer grids, aligning nicely with the intuition of super-resolution tasks. Moreover, by optimising the base distribution, this approach allows for further structural improvements besides increasing the expressivity of the model.

• Generalized Gibbs ensembles in weakly interacting dissipative systems and digital quantum computers

  Iris Ulčakar, Zala Lenarčič

  SciPost Phys. 19, 068 (2025) · published 4 September 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Identifying use cases with superconducting circuits not critically affected by the inherent noise is a pertinent challenge. Here, we propose using a digital quantum computer to showcase the activation of integrable effects in weakly dissipative integrable systems. Dissipation is realized by coupling the system's qubits to ancillary ones that are periodically reset. We compare the digital reset protocol to the usual Lindblad continuous-time evolution by considering non-interacting integrable systems dynamics, which can be analyzed using scattering between the Bogoliubov quasiparticles caused by the dissipation. If not dominant, the inherent noise would cause extra scattering but would not critically change the physics. A corresponding quantum computer implementation would illuminate the possibilities of stabilizing exotic states in nearly integrable quantum materials.

  1 citation

• A perturbation theory for multi-time correlation functions in open quantum systems

  Piotr Szańkowski

  SciPost Phys. 19, 066 (2025) · published 3 September 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Dynamical maps are the principal subject of the open system theory. Formally, the dynamical map of a given open quantum system is a density matrix transformation that takes any initial state and sends it to the state at a later time. Physically, it encapsulates the system's evolution due to coupling with its environment. Hence, the theory provides a flexible and accurate framework for computing expectation values of open system observables. However, expectation values-or more generally, single-time correlation functions-capture only the simplest aspects of a quantum system's dynamics. A complete characterization of the dynamics requires access to multi-time correlation functions as well: phenomena like detailed balance, linear and non-linear response, non-equilibrium transport in general, or even sequential measurements of system observables are all described in terms of multi-time correlations. For closed systems, such correlations are well-defined, even though knowledge of the system's state alone is insufficient to determine them fully. In contrast, the standard dynamical map formalism for open systems does not account for multi-time correlations, as it is fundamentally limited to describing state evolution. Here, we extend the scope of open quantum system theory by developing a systematic perturbation theory for computing multi-time correlation functions.

• A quantum annealing protocol to solve the nuclear shell model

  Emanuele Costa, Axel Pérez-Obiol, Javier Menéndez, Arnau Rios, Artur García-Sáez, Bruno Juliá-Díaz

  SciPost Phys. 19, 062 (2025) · published 29 August 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The nuclear shell model accurately describes the structure and dynamics of atomic nuclei. However, the exponential scaling of the basis size with the number of degrees of freedom hampers a direct numerical solution for heavy nuclei. In this work, we present a quantum annealing protocol to obtain nuclear ground states. We propose a tailored driver Hamiltonian that preserves a large gap and validate our approach in a dozen nuclei with basis sizes up to $10^5$ using classical simulations of the annealing evolution. We explore the relation between the spectral gap and the total time of the annealing protocol, assessing its accuracy by comparing the fidelity and energy relative error to classical benchmarks. While the nuclear Hamiltonian is non-local and thus challenging to implement in current setups, the estimated computational cost of our annealing protocol on quantum circuits is polynomial in the single-particle basis size, paving the way to study heavier nuclei.

  1 citation

• Visions in quantum gravity

  Luca Buoninfante, Benjamin Knorr, K. Sravan Kumar, Alessia Platania, Damiano Anselmi, Ivano Basile, N. Emil J. Bjerrum-Bohr, Robert Brandenberger, Mariana Carrillo González, Anne-Christine Davis, Bianca Dittrich, Paolo Di Vecchia, John F. Donoghue, Fay Dowker, Gia Dvali, Astrid Eichhorn, Steven B. Giddings, Alessandra Gnecchi, Giulia Gubitosi, Lavinia Heisenberg, Renata Kallosh, Alexey S. Koshelev, Stefano Liberati, Renate Loll, Leonardo Modesto, Paulo Moniz, Daniele Oriti, Olga Papadoulaki, Jan M. Pawlowski, Roberto Percacci, Lesław Rachwał, Mairi Sakellariadou, Alberto Salvio, Kellogg Stelle, Sumati Surya, Arkady Tseytlin, Neil Turok, Thomas Van Riet, Richard P. Woodard

  SciPost Phys. Comm. Rep. 11 (2025) · published 25 August 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  To deepen our understanding of Quantum Gravity and its connections with black holes and cosmology, building a common language and exchanging ideas across different approaches is crucial. The Nordita Program "Quantum Gravity: from gravitational effective field theories to ultraviolet complete approaches" created a platform for extensive discussions, aimed at pinpointing both common grounds and sources of disagreements, with the hope of generating ideas and driving progress in the field. This contribution summarizes the twelve topical discussions held during the program and collects individual thoughts of speakers and panelists on the future of the field in light of these discussions.

  1 citation

• Twisted gauging and topological sectors in (2+1)d Abelian lattice gauge theories

  Bram Vancraeynest-De Cuiper, Clement Delcamp

  SciPost Phys. 19, 054 (2025) · published 22 August 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Given a two-dimensional quantum lattice model with an Abelian gauge theory interpretation, we investigate a duality operation that amounts to gauging its invertible 1-form symmetry, followed by gauging the resulting 0-form symmetry in a twisted way via a choice of discrete torsion. Using tensor networks, we introduce explicit lattice realisations of the so-called condensation defects, which are obtained by gauging the 1-form symmetry along submanifolds of spacetime, and employ the same calculus to realise the duality operators. By leveraging these tensor network operators, we compute the non-trivial interplay between symmetry-twisted boundary conditions and charge sectors under the duality operation, enabling us to construct isometries relating the dual Hamiltonians. Whenever a lattice gauge theory is left invariant under the duality operation, we explore the possibility of promoting the self-duality to an internal symmetry. We argue that this results in a symmetry structure that encodes the 2-representations of a 2-group.

  1 citation