Entropy and Information in Quantum Many-Body Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Entropy and information are playing increasingly important roles in the study of quantum many-body systems. On the one hand, the entropy of a subsystem’s quantum state, known as the entanglement entropy, identifies key properties of the quantum system related to quantum phase transitions, topological order, conformal field theory, classical simulability, etc. However, much remains unknown about entanglement entropy, such as its relation to thermodynamic entropy and its scaling with system size in various types of quantum systems. In addition, the entanglement entropy of quantum many-body systems has been connected with the entropy of black holes, leading to the onset of using quantum simulators to study black-hole physics. Experimental measurement of entanglement entropy in quantum simulators remains challenging, with scalable methods being much desired.

On the other hand, information has also become a new keyword in quantum many-body physics. For example, the speed of information propagation in quantum lattices was found to play a vital role in the classification of quantum phases, the stability of the topological order, the entanglement area laws, many-body localization, timescales for thermalization and heating, and digital quantum simulation of many-body systems. Another example is information scrambling, which quantifies how fast quantum information gets lost locally due to many-body interactions. Information scrambling is closely related to quantum chaos and high-energy physics, and there is growing interest in studying it using quantum simulation experiments. Other examples include the study of mutual information, channel capacity, and random number generators in quantum many-body systems.

This Special Issue aims to be a forum for the presentation of new results from the study of entropy and information in quantum many-body systems, with example topics listed above. Both theoretical (including computational) and experimental studies fall within the scope of this Special Issue.

Dr. Zhe-Xuan Gong
Prof. Dr. Gioacchino Massimo Palma
Guest Editors

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