Breaking global symmetries with locality-preserving operations

Abstract

In the general framework of quantum resource theories, one typically only distinguishes between operations that can or cannot generate the resource of interest. In many-body settings, one can further characterize quantum operations based on underlying geometrical constraints, and a natural question is to understand the power of resource-generating operations that preserve locality. In this work, we address this question within the resource theory of asymmetry, which has recently found applications in the study of many-body symmetry-breaking and symmetry-restoration phenomena. We consider symmetries corresponding to both abelian and non-abelian compact groups with a homogeneous action on the space of $N$ qubits, focusing on the prototypical examples of $U(1)$ and $SU(2)$. We study the so-called $G$-asymmetry $\Delta S^{G}_N$, and present two main results. First, we derive a general bound on the asymmetry that can be generated by locality-preserving operations acting on product states. We prove that, in any spatial dimension, $\Delta S^{G}_N\leq (1/2)\Delta S^{G, \rm max}_N[1+o(1)]$, where $\Delta S^{G, \rm max}_N$ is the maximum value of the $G$-asymmetry in the full many-body Hilbert space. Second, we show that locality-preserving operations can generate maximal asymmetry, $\Delta S^{G}_N\sim\Delta S^{G, \rm max}_N$, when applied to symmetric states featuring long-range entanglement. Our results provide a unified perspective on recent studies of asymmetry in many-body physics, highlighting a non-trivial interplay between asymmetry, locality, and entanglement.