Analysis of quantum correlations within the ground state of a three level Lipkin model

TL;DR

This paper investigates quantum correlations in the ground state of a three-level Lipkin model using quantum information measures, comparing various approximation methods to the exact solution.

Contribution

It introduces the use of quantum discord to characterize correlations in fermionic models and compares different mean-field and beyond mean-field approximations.

Findings

Quantum discord approximations align well with exact ground state for certain partitions.

Symmetry restoration removes fake quantum correlations introduced by mean-field methods.

Different approximations capture correlations differently depending on the partition.

Abstract

The performance of beyond mean field methods in solving the quantum many body problem for fermions is usually characterized by the correlation energy measured with respect to the underlying mean field value. In this paper we address the issue of characterizing the amount of correlations associated to different approximations from a quantum information perspective. With this goal in mind, we analyze the traditional Hartree-Fock (HF) method with spontaneous symmetry breaking, the HF with symmetry restoration and the generator coordinate method (GCM) in a exactly solvable fermion model known as the three-level Lipkin model. To characterize correlations including entanglement and beyond we use the quantum discord between different partition orbitals. We find that for physically motivated partitions, the quantum discord of the exact ground state is reasonably well reproduced by the different approximations. However, other partitions create "fake quantum correlations" in order to capture quantum correlations corresponding to partitions for which the Hartree-Fock solution fails. Those are removed and redistributed through a symmetry restoration process.