Extremely slow scaling of minimal Hamming distance in quantum sampling data

Abstract

Quantum data can be obtained from a diverse range of sources, including direct measurements from noisy quantum processors, cold-atom simulators, and classical approximations such as variational neural-network states. However, our ability to characterize these systems is fundamentally limited, as the available measurement data is often sparse compared to the exponentially large Hilbert space of the system. To address this, we propose using the average minimal Hamming distance calculated for a set of unique bitstrings as a robust metric revealing a universal power-law behaviour. Through various examples of real experiments and simulations, we show that the power-law parameters reliably capture the complexity of quantum states and identify quantum phase transitions from limited quantum information, without the need for accumulating extensive statistics or explicitly calculating physical observables. This enables the analysis of completely different quantum experiments within a single framework.