Abstract

We present analytical and numerical studies of the behavior of the alpha-Renyi entropies in the toric code in presence of several types of perturbations aimed at studying the simulability of these perturbations to the parent Hamiltonian using local operations and classical communications (LOCC)-a property called local convertibility. In particular, the derivatives, with respect to the perturbation parameter, present different signs for different values of a within the topological phase. From the information-theoretic point of view, this means that such ground states cannot be continuously deformed within the topological phase by means of catalyst assisted local operations and classical communications (LOCC). Such LOCC differential convertibility is on the other hand always possible in the trivial disordered phase. The non-LOCC convertibility is remarkable because it can be computed on a system whose size is independent of correlation length. This method can therefore constitute an experimentally feasible witness of topological order.

Publication Details
Publication Type
Journal Article
Year of Publication
2014
Volume
90
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevB.90.245128
Journal
Physical Review B
Contributors
Groups