Entanglement Transitions from Holographic Random Tensor Networks

TL;DR

This paper models entanglement phase transitions in quantum systems using holographic random tensor networks, providing an analytical framework to understand transitions between different entanglement scaling laws.

Contribution

It introduces a holographic tensor network model and a replica trick approach to analytically study entanglement transitions in quantum many-body systems.

Findings

Mapping entanglement properties to a classical statistical mechanics model

Interpretation of entanglement transitions as ordering transitions

Analytic insights into the field theory of entanglement transitions

Abstract

We introduce a novel class of phase transitions separating quantum states with different entanglement features. An example of such an "entanglement phase transition" is provided by the many-body localization transition in disordered quantum systems, as it separates highly entangled thermal states at weak disorder from many-body localized states with low entanglement at strong disorder. In the spirit of random matrix theory, we describe a simple model for such transitions where a physical quantum many-body system lives at the "holographic" boundary of a bulk random tensor network. Using a replica trick approach, we map the calculation of the entanglement properties of the boundary system onto the free energy cost of fluctuating domain walls in a classical statistical mechanics model. This allows us to interpret transitions between volume-law and area-law scaling of entanglement as ordering transitions in this statistical mechanics model. Our approach allows us to get an analytic handle on the field theory of these entanglement transitions.