Witnessing disorder in quantum magnets

There are no clean samples in nature. Therefore, when we come to discuss the entanglement properties of quantum materials, the effects of disorder must be taken into account. This question is of particular interest for highly entangled phases, such as quantum spin liquids, which lie outside the Land...

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Main Authors: Snigdh Sabharwal, Tokuro Shimokawa, Nic Shannon
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2025-06-01
Series:Physical Review Research
Online Access:http://doi.org/10.1103/95fl-rxl3
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author Snigdh Sabharwal
Tokuro Shimokawa
Nic Shannon
author_facet Snigdh Sabharwal
Tokuro Shimokawa
Nic Shannon
author_sort Snigdh Sabharwal
collection DOAJ
description There are no clean samples in nature. Therefore, when we come to discuss the entanglement properties of quantum materials, the effects of disorder must be taken into account. This question is of particular interest for highly entangled phases, such as quantum spin liquids, which lie outside the Landau paradigm for classifying phases of matter. In this work, we explore what experimentally accessible measures, in the form of concurrence, residual tangle, and quantum Fisher information can teach us about the entanglement in the presence of disorder. As a representative example, we consider the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquids (TLL) and disorder-driven random singlet (RS) phases found in antiferromagnetic quantum spin chains. Using quantum Fisher information and residual tangle, we demonstrate that both TLL and RS phases exhibit multipartite entanglement. In the case of the RS phase, we attribute this to entanglement localized below a crossover length scale. We further show that the order of disorder average matters in calculating measures like concurrence and that this can lead to false inferences when interpreting experiments. Nonetheless, correctly interpreted, these witnesses provide useful information about the effects of disorder. We explore how information about the central charge of the TLL can be extracted from the low-temperature behavior of concurrence and conjecture that this analysis can be extended to the effective central charge of the RS phase. Finally, we establish how RS and TLL phases can be distinguished through the growth of multipartite entanglement, as witnessed by the equal-time structure factor. These results establish that, used carefully, experiments based on entanglement witnesses can provide important information about quantum spin systems in the presence of disorder.
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spelling doaj-art-4a135faa7df9400ab2ec85d527f03df52025-08-20T03:45:35ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review Research2643-15642025-06-017202327110.1103/95fl-rxl3Witnessing disorder in quantum magnetsSnigdh SabharwalTokuro ShimokawaNic ShannonThere are no clean samples in nature. Therefore, when we come to discuss the entanglement properties of quantum materials, the effects of disorder must be taken into account. This question is of particular interest for highly entangled phases, such as quantum spin liquids, which lie outside the Landau paradigm for classifying phases of matter. In this work, we explore what experimentally accessible measures, in the form of concurrence, residual tangle, and quantum Fisher information can teach us about the entanglement in the presence of disorder. As a representative example, we consider the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquids (TLL) and disorder-driven random singlet (RS) phases found in antiferromagnetic quantum spin chains. Using quantum Fisher information and residual tangle, we demonstrate that both TLL and RS phases exhibit multipartite entanglement. In the case of the RS phase, we attribute this to entanglement localized below a crossover length scale. We further show that the order of disorder average matters in calculating measures like concurrence and that this can lead to false inferences when interpreting experiments. Nonetheless, correctly interpreted, these witnesses provide useful information about the effects of disorder. We explore how information about the central charge of the TLL can be extracted from the low-temperature behavior of concurrence and conjecture that this analysis can be extended to the effective central charge of the RS phase. Finally, we establish how RS and TLL phases can be distinguished through the growth of multipartite entanglement, as witnessed by the equal-time structure factor. These results establish that, used carefully, experiments based on entanglement witnesses can provide important information about quantum spin systems in the presence of disorder.http://doi.org/10.1103/95fl-rxl3
spellingShingle Snigdh Sabharwal
Tokuro Shimokawa
Nic Shannon
Witnessing disorder in quantum magnets
Physical Review Research
title Witnessing disorder in quantum magnets
title_full Witnessing disorder in quantum magnets
title_fullStr Witnessing disorder in quantum magnets
title_full_unstemmed Witnessing disorder in quantum magnets
title_short Witnessing disorder in quantum magnets
title_sort witnessing disorder in quantum magnets
url http://doi.org/10.1103/95fl-rxl3
work_keys_str_mv AT snigdhsabharwal witnessingdisorderinquantummagnets
AT tokuroshimokawa witnessingdisorderinquantummagnets
AT nicshannon witnessingdisorderinquantummagnets