Topological R\'enyi entropy after a quantum quench

We present an analytical study on the resilience of topological order after a quantum quench. The system is initially prepared in the ground state of the toric-code model, and then quenched by switching on an external magnetic field. During the subsequent time evolution, the variation in topological order is detected via the topological Renyi entropy of order 2. We consider two different quenches: the first one has an exact solution, while the second one requires perturbation theory. In both cases, we find that the long-term time average of the topological Renyi entropy in the thermodynamic limit is the same as its initial value. Based on our results, we argue that topological order is resilient against a wide range of quenches.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, published version with structural changes, see supplemental material at http://link.aps.org/supplemental/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.17060

Quantum geometric tensor away from Equilibrium

The manifold of ground states of a family of quantum Hamiltonians can be endowed with a quantum geometric tensor whose singularities signal quantum phase transitions and give a general way to define quantum phases. In this paper, we show that the same information-theoretic and geometrical approach can be used to describe the geometry of quantum states away from equilibrium. We construct the quantum geometric tensor $Q_{\mu\nu}$ for ensembles of states that evolve in time and study its phase diagram and equilibration properties. If the initial ensemble is the manifold of ground states, we show that the phase diagram is conserved, that the geometric tensor equilibrates after a quantum quench, and that its time behavior is governed by out-of-time-order commutators (OTOCs). We finally demonstrate our results in the exactly solvable Cluster-XY model

Thermalization of Topological Entropy after a Quantum Quench

In two spatial dimensions, topological order is robust for static deformations at zero temperature, while it is fragile at any finite temperature. How robust is topological order after a quantum quench? In this paper we show that topological order thermalizes under the unitary evolution after a quantum quench. If the quench preserves gauge symmetry, there is a residual topological entropy exactly like in the finite temperature case. We obtain this result by studying the time evolution of the topological 2-R\'enyi entropy in a fully analytical, exact way. These techniques can be then applied to systems with strong disorder to show whether a many-body localization phenomenon appears in topologically ordered systems.Comment: new plot with finite time results added; typos fixe

Bipartite entanglement and entropic boundary law in lattice spin systems

We investigate bipartite entanglement in spin-1/2 systems on a generic lattice. For states that are an equal superposition of elements of a group $G$ of spin flips acting on the fully polarized state $\ket{0}^{\otimes n}$, we find that the von Neumann entropy depends only on the boundary between the two subsystems $A$ and $B$. These states are stabilized by the group $G$. A physical realization of such states is given by the ground state manifold of the Kitaev's model on a Riemann surface of genus $\mathfrak{g}$. For a square lattice, we find that the entropy of entanglement is bounded from above and below by functions linear in the perimeter of the subsystem $A$ and is equal to the perimeter (up to an additive constant) when $A$ is convex. The entropy of entanglement is shown to be related to the topological order of this model. Finally, we find that some of the ground states are absolutely entangled, i.e., no partition has zero entanglement. We also provide several examples for the square lattice.Comment: 10 pages, figs, RevTeX

Probability density of quantum expectation values

We consider the quantum expectation value \mathcal{A}=\ of an observable A over the state |\psi\> . We derive the exact probability distribution of \mathcal{A} seen as a random variable when |\psi\> varies over the set of all pure states equipped with the Haar-induced measure. The probability density is obtained with elementary means by computing its characteristic function, both for non-degenerate and degenerate observables. To illustrate our results we compare the exact predictions for few concrete examples with the concentration bounds obtained using Levy's lemma. Finally we comment on the relevance of the central limit theorem and draw some results on an alternative statistical mechanics based on the uniform measure on the energy shell.Comment: Substantial revision. References adde