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Entanglement asymmetry as a probe of symmetry breaking

Author

Listed:
  • Filiberto Ares

    (SISSA and INFN)

  • Sara Murciano

    (SISSA and INFN
    California Institute of Technology
    California Institute of Technology)

  • Pasquale Calabrese

    (SISSA and INFN
    The Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics)

Abstract

Symmetry and symmetry breaking are two pillars of modern quantum physics. Still, quantifying how much a symmetry is broken is an issue that has received little attention. In extended quantum systems, this problem is intrinsically bound to the subsystem of interest. Hence, in this work, we borrow methods from the theory of entanglement in many-body quantum systems to introduce a subsystem measure of symmetry breaking that we dub entanglement asymmetry. As a prototypical illustration, we study the entanglement asymmetry in a quantum quench of a spin chain in which an initially broken global U(1) symmetry is restored dynamically. We adapt the quasiparticle picture for entanglement evolution to the analytic determination of the entanglement asymmetry. We find, expectedly, that larger is the subsystem, slower is the restoration, but also the counterintuitive result that more the symmetry is initially broken, faster it is restored, a sort of quantum Mpemba effect, a phenomenon that we show to occur in a large variety of systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Filiberto Ares & Sara Murciano & Pasquale Calabrese, 2023. "Entanglement asymmetry as a probe of symmetry breaking," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-37747-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37747-8
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Marcos Rigol & Vanja Dunjko & Maxim Olshanii, 2008. "Thermalization and its mechanism for generic isolated quantum systems," Nature, Nature, vol. 452(7189), pages 854-858, April.
    2. Avinash Kumar & John Bechhoefer, 2020. "Exponentially faster cooling in a colloidal system," Nature, Nature, vol. 584(7819), pages 64-68, August.
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