Entanglement islands in 1D and 2D lattices with defects

TL;DR

This paper uses TDQMC to analyze how structural defects in 1D and 2D lattices affect local quantum entanglement, revealing entanglement islands and their spatial patterns.

Contribution

It introduces a scalable TDQMC-based method to map spatial entanglement variations in lattice systems with defects, without full many-body wavefunctions.

Findings

Entanglement concentrates near defects in 1D systems.

In 2D, entanglement forms bridge-like and radial domains.

The method enables real-space quantum information analysis.

Abstract

We investigate the spatial structure of quantum entanglement in one- and two-dimensional lattice systems containing structural defects, using the Time-Dependent Quantum Monte Carlo (TDQMC) method. By constructing reduced density matrices from ensembles of guide waves, we resolve spatial variations in both Coulomb-mediated entanglement and coherence without requiring full many-body wavefunctions. This approach reveals localized regions, entanglement islands, where quantum correlations are enhanced or suppressed due to the presence of vacancies or interaction inhomogeneities. In 1D systems, entanglement tends to concentrate near defects, while in 2D we observe bridge-like and radially symmetric domains. Our results demonstrate that TDQMC offers a scalable and physically transparent framework for real-space quantum information analysis, with implications for information transfer in atomic-size structures, quantum materials, entanglement-based sensing, and coherent state engineering.