Group seminar at MPQ and Zoom: What can we learn from Snapshots?

Prof. Cenke Xu, UC Santa Barbara, USA
Group seminar at MPQ lecture hall and Zoom
Wednesday, 10 December, 2.30pm (MEZ)

Snapshots are the standard data produced in many quantum simulators. In this talk we demonstrate that they encode far more information than conventional correlation functions. I’ll show how snapshot data can probe conformal boundaries and defects in quantum many-body systems. In particular, from local-spin snapshots we can extract the universal conformal defect (boundary) entropy of a 1+1d CFT, as well as the “line of defect fixed points”. The protocol extends naturally to higher-dimensional CFTs. I’ll then discuss construction of strongly interacting spin-liquid states, as well as the new notion of "strong-to-weak spontaneous symmetry breaking" using free or interacting fermions available on current simulators.