Information scrambling in quantum circuits.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34709938.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/science.abg5029.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Interactions in quantum systems can spread initially localized quantum information into the exponentially many degrees of freedom of the entire system. Understanding this process, known as quantum scrambling, is key to resolving several open questions in physics. Here, by measuring the time-dependent evolution and fluctuation of out-of-time-order correlators, we experimentally investigate the dynamics of quantum scrambling on a 53-qubit quantum processor. We engineer quantum circuits that distinguish operator spreading and operator entanglement and experimentally observe their respective signatures. We show that whereas operator spreading is captured by an efficient classical model, operator entanglement in idealized circuits requires exponentially scaled computational resources to simulate. These results open the path to studying complex and practically relevant physical observables with near-term quantum processors.