TY - JOUR T1 - Circuit Complexity across a Topological Phase Transition JF - Physical Review Research Y1 - 2020 A1 - Fangli Liu A1 - Rex Lundgren A1 - Paraj Titum A1 - James R. Garrison A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

We use Nielsen's approach to quantify the circuit complexity in the one-dimensional Kitaev model. In equilibrium, we find that the circuit complexity of ground states exhibits a divergent derivative at the critical point, signaling the presence of a topological phase transition. Out of equilibrium, we study the complexity dynamics after a sudden quench, and find that the steady-state complexity exhibits nonanalytical behavior when quenched across critical points. We generalize our results to the long-range interacting case, and demonstrate that the circuit complexity correctly predicts the critical point between regions with different semi-integer topological numbers. Our results establish a connection between circuit complexity and quantum phase transitions both in and out of equilibrium, and can be easily generalized to topological phase transitions in higher dimensions. Our study opens a new avenue to using circuit complexity as a novel quantity to understand many-body systems.

VL - 2 U4 - 013323 UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.10720 CP - 1 U5 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.013323 ER -